> Cube Land
>  by Divide
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter One: Generating New World
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cube Land

One: Generating New World




Twilight Sparkle was looking forward to a nice relaxing day. After the... traumatic events of the wedding, she was looking forward to taking it easy and spending time with her five closest friends. Twilight had proposed the idea of having a picnic where they normally brought their pets to play, and her friends had agreed wholeheartedly.

Here they were, eating delicious baked goods courtesy of Pinkie Pie, listening to Applejack play the guitar, and enjoying each other's company when a purple flash of blinding light made everypony stop what they were doing and focus upon where the flash had came from. From the epicentre of the flash stood a strange, blackish-purple rectangle amid scorched and blackened grass. There appeared to be writhing purple energies that made up a kind of membrane in between the top and bottom layers of the... thing. 

"What do you girls think this is?" asked Twilight.

All of her friends shook their heads and shrugged. All except for Pinkie Pie.

"I think it looks like a portal!" she exclaimed, bouncing happily, the remains of her cupcake smeared across her face.

Twilight walked closer, inspecting the strange object. It appeared to be flawless; it had no discernable cracks or imperfections along the entire structure. Twilight tapped it with her hoof, which caused it to give off a loud tinking sound.

"If it's a portal," said Twilight suspiciously, "then why did it appear here out of nowhere? That flash was uncannily similar to magic, but there doesn't seem to be any other unicorns here. And I'm also pretty sure that they don't come with a strange stone bordering." Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed Rainbow Dash slowly creeping towards the dark, purple structure.

"Dash! What do you think you're doing? The portal could be dangerous!"

Caught red-hoofed, Rainbow Dash stopped her skulking and challenged Twilight's claim on exactly what the portal was. "Just look at it!" she exclaimed. "It doesn't look dangerous, it looks awesome!

"Uhh... What does it do, exactly?"

Four out of the five ponies shrugged. "If I remember correctly from my studies," began Twilight, the only pony not to shrug, "a portal is an opening from one place to another, generally used only when great amounts of matter must be transported very quickly.

"I don't know exactly how much magic is required to summon a portal, but I know that it would take several powerful unicorns to even attempt making one."

"Well then," said Rainbow Dash, breaking the stunned silence as the ponies simply observed the flickering form of the creation before them. "Why don't we see what's on the other side?"

"Are you nuts?! What if there are monsters or other bad stuff on the other side? You don't know what lies beyond!" exclaimed Twilight.

Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at Twilight. "Yeah, well, neither do you!" Twilight continued to glare at her. Not withering from the glare in the slightest, Dash continued to persuade Twilight to see things her way. "C'mon Twilight, lighten up! What if I go first and then come back? Will that prove to you that its safe?" she asked, an adventurous glint in her eye.

"Well..." debated Twilight, unsure.

Without waiting for a proper answer, Rainbow Dash grinned mischievously, unfurled her wings, and flew straight into the portal before anypony could stop her. As soon as Rainbow Dash touched the purple membrane of the portal structure, she vanished.

"Gosh darn it, Rainbow! Y'all never listen to common sense!" called Applejack, unamused.

All of the ponies remaining on the opposite side of the portal were extremely concerned with Dash's well-being. This wasn't the first time that she had done something reckless, and it definitely wouldn't be the last.

It was with great relief that after only a minute had passed before she flew back out of the portal. Panting from excitement and exhaustion, Dash exclaimed, "You girls totally need to see this! It's... it's..."

The ponies waited with bated breath to hear her recollection.

"Awesome! Everything's all... well, you have to see for yourselves!"

"Is it safe, Dash? Are there any creatures or monsters there? Is the air safe to breath? Where is this 'other place' located?" asked Twilight, always the precocious one.

"Yes, no, yes, and you'll have to see it yourself! It's... hard to explain," replied Rainbow Dash, looking hopefully towards Twilight while putting on her best pleading expression.

"Well..." began Twilight. Finally cracking from Dash's puppy-dog eyes, she sighed and relented. "I guess we could at least look around..."

Rainbow Dash face broke into a huge grin. "That's the spirit!"

One by one, the Bearers of Harmony cautiously walked up to the portal and touched the purple film, each disappearing the same way that Rainbow Dash had: no puff of smoke, no flash of light... they were simply gone. 

Naturally, Fluttershy had needed some extra coaxing, but faced with the decision to be with her friends or left behind, she chose to follow the others through the portal.

Twilight found herself to be the last pony to take the plunge.

Should I tell somepony where we're going? she asked herself. After a few seconds of deliberation, she thought against it. We should only be there for a little while... oh what the hay, I want to see this other place too!

And with that, Twilight touched her hoof to the purple portal and felt herself whisked away to another dimension. 





Here I go. 

I've decided to start a... journal of sorts due to a number of strange occurrences that have started popping up recently. This is for my own recollection, since I doubt anyone else will want to read my memoirs. But what do I know? Perhaps there is someone, somewhere, who will find this recollection and enjoy it...

...Ah, who am I kidding? I'm the only one who will read this.


Day 94, late afternoon


The day started the same as all the others; me rising at first light. I have ascertained the perfect sleep schedule for some time now. Going to bed as soon as the sun sets and rising as it rises has proven to be the most effective balance between safety, and getting stuff done.

I performed my daily routine: gathering eggs from the chickens I have penned up, harvesting the wheat that has fully matured while replacing them with fresh seeds, and then leaving my home to continue where I left off in exploring the Mine.

I brought my usual collection of items with me: a stack of torches to light my way, my clock to alert me when it was time to leave, several loaves of bread in case I felt peckish, an iron sword for defence, an iron shovel for digging through dirt, and my trusty diamond pickaxe for crushing through everything else.

I walked the hundred or so blocks to the entrance of the Mine, constantly looking behind me in case I was being stalked. While it hadn't happened yet, it never hurt to be prepared for every eventuality. As I approached the entrance, I realized that even with all the torches I had placed around the outside and along the steps leading down, the Mine still seemed foreboding.

Making sure there were no unpleasant surprises awaiting me around the corners, I carefully descended down the rough, cobblestone staircase that I built for the sole purpose of making it easier to climb up and down into the only quarry that I have ever needed. 

As I continued downwards, the illumination from the Sun giving way to the flickering torchlight, I realized that I had traversed through most of the paths within. There was one path, however... one path that I was reluctant to explore.

The Pit. Simply named, and simply avoided.

The first time I had attempted to find the secrets that it held, I very nearly died. Ever since my near-death experience at the hands of the Pit, I have felt terrible tremors and fears wrack my body whenever I so much as look towards it. There was something down there, I thought. Something that didn't want my scrutiny.

Needless to say, I have not tried to go down there again...

...Until today, that is.

Today was different: I looked at the dark and foreboding descent and felt no dread, not even a fluttering of my stomach. Instead, I felt the need to find. Explore. Uncover. I'm not sure where the sudden onset of wanting to explore my possible tomb came from, as I had no clue what I would find within.

What was down there, I asked myself. More iron? Gold? A cache of illustrious diamonds?

Stowing away my fear, I descended into the depths of the Pit... and found nothing of interest. For many hours, I placed torches at regular intervals, descending ever deeper into the pitch-black cavern. When my patience and need to explore was about to finally reach its limit, I caught the sight of strangely familiar stone, one that I recognized immediately, but couldn't remember where from. It wasn't pure stone; I have mined enough to know. It definitely wasn't cobblestone, nor even the mossy variety that I occasionally found during my underground jaunts.

No, this stone was different. It was... strange. Familiar, but not. Carved not by erosion, but by hand. I would've stayed there for longer, trying to remember exactly where I had seen the stone beforehand, had I not glanced at my clock and realized that it was much later than I thought it was. 

Sundown was rapidly approaching, so I retreated back to the entrance of the Mine, leaving a staggered path of torches to help me remember the way.

I will be back to uncover the secrets that lie dormant in the Pit. It may not be tomorrow, nor the day after that, but I will return and I will uncover whatever secrets are being withheld from me.

The strangest part is... my brash exploration wasn't even the oddest occurrence today.

When I stepped out of the cave system and back onto the marshy ground, I saw a most curious sight. Flying high in the sky was a creature that I had never seen before. From my location on the ground, I could only discern that its colour was blue and that it had most certainly had wings.

Feeling a rush of anticipation towards meeting this strange new creature, I raced back to my home and deposited all of the unnecessary objects that I was carrying. I subconsciously kept my sword on me, on the off chance that the creature was hostile, but that was simply a precautionary measure.

My curiosity is piqued; I cannot write any more.

I go now to try and find this new and exotic critter.

With any luck, I will find it before nightfall.
> Chapter Two: Not According To Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cube Land

Two: Not According To Plan





When Twilight touched the glowing portal, she felt her very being disintegrated and reformed in a matter of milliseconds.

It was a surreal experience for her. 

One moment, she was in Ponyville with the Sun at her back and the smell of freshly cut grass filling her nostrils, and the next, she found herself stumbling onto cold, wet, unfamiliar ground. Shaking off the few blades of grass that stuck to her mane, she dusted herself off and tried to obtain a general observation of her surroundings.

They were very different from what she was used to.

Instead of the rolling hills and vibrant colours of Equestria, it seemed as if she had been dumped into a swamp. Or whatever this world's equivalent to a swamp was. 

Technically, the hills were still rolling, if you considered a large gap between each higher or lower level of elevation to be rolling.

The ground was soft and marshy, and what little grass there was seemed to be strangely discoloured, almost as if the colours were being leeched from the soil. The trees were almost all uniformly tall, and the leaves on said trees had the same discolouration effect wrought upon them.

That was all well and good, but the most intriguing fact by far had to be that there seemed to be no sloped or curved edges on anything: the entire world around her seemed to be made up of cubes!

Everything was made up of the equilateral shape. Everything. Twilight slowly turned around in a circle, observing the fascinating new world in stunned silence. Everything from the tree trunks to the dirt beneath her hooves were created perfectly equal, with no block larger or smaller than the next. She could even see a faint black line intersecting where each block connected with one another.

This place is fascinating! she thought excitedly. It seems that the laws of physics aren't synonymous with different worlds! This could be the discovery of the century!

Twilight foresaw with her mind's eye a grand ceremony, attended by every notable and prominent member of the scientific community. She saw Princess Celestia, her mentor of many years, standing up on the stage and announcing her most faithful student's accomplishments for everypony to hear. She saw—

"Twilight! Quit lazing around and come check this out!"

Like a delicate house of cards toppled by a single breeze, Twilight's entire fantasy fell apart and crumbled.

With a sigh, she relegated her reverie to a later time and called out, "Coming!" 

Her voice echoed ominously across the unfamiliar landscape.

Twilight rushed over to her friends, wondering what exactly they had found. They were all surrounding whatever it was that so interested them, causing Twilight to squeeze her way between Rarity and Applejack to get a look. She braced herself for something magical...

...And realized she was looking at a flower. A very strange flower, but a flower nonetheless.

"It's a flower," she stated simply, feeling a frown coming on.

Her friends turned to look at her, each with a wry expression of their own.

"Okay, it's a very strange looking flower," Twilight relented, "but it's still just a flower."

"Oh, come now, Twilight! I thought that you of all ponies would appreciate something of this magnitude," toted Rarity. "I may not be a flower pony, but even I know a rose when I see one, even if it is perfectly cuboid in shape."

Twilight looked this way and that, trying to see how it resembled an Equestrian rose in the slightest. "I don't see it," she admitted. "All I see is a strange, otherworldly flower that, for whatever reason, is made of tiny squares like the rest of this place."

"Believe me Twilight," said Rarity as she held a hoof to her chest, "I know what colour a rose is supposed to be. And that," she pointed a hoof towards the flower in question, "is rose coloured. Therefore, it must be a rose."

"And if there's one plant that's been... cubified, there could be more," finished Twilight, the realization suddenly dawning on her. "This is huge!"

"How 'bout we take that... whatever it is back to Ponyville with us," reasoned Applejack. "Personally, Ah'd like to bring back some proof of us bein' here. I don't want to go tellin' stories of this here cube world without havin' somethin' to prove it," she continued. "I don't know 'bout you girls, but Ah don't want ta be called crazy."

Twilight nodded sagely, already imagining the pride on her mentor's face when the six of them returned to Equestria with tales of the mysterious cube land. "That's a great idea, Applejack!"

An awkward silence followed.

"Erm... who's going to pick it up?" Twilight asked.

Nopony answered.

Grumbling inwardly to herself about having to do everything, Twilight began, "Fine, I'll do it, just as long as—" before being interrupted by Fluttershy, of all ponies.

"I'll do it," she said meekly.

"Okay, you can do it!" Twilight quickly replied before taking a few precautionary steps backwards. Everypony except for Fluttershy quickly followed suit, leaving her alone with the small, red flower.

Undeterred, Fluttershy gingerly grabbed the cube rose between her teeth and pulled.

The flower didn't budge.

"Uhh, 'Shy? I think you'll have to try a bit harder than that," stated Rainbow Dash from where she was hovering a safe distance away.

With a snort and a deep breath, Fluttershy pulled with all her might, trying to get the stubborn flower to disentangle itself from the marshy ground. With a strange 'popping' sound, the rose was unearthed.

Everypony breathed a collective sigh of relief when nothing exploded or otherwise went horribly wrong.

"Well, I guess we should head back now," said Twilight as she looked towards the sky. She noticed that even the Sun was square-shaped as it slowly sank below the horizon, the square clouds a dark, purple-orange colour. 

"Wait, we're leaving already?!" Rainbow Dash cried. "But we just got here!"

"Dash, the Sun's setting and I don't want to still be here during night-time," explained Twilight. "There's no telling what might be nocturnal here." At the end of her statement, she felt a chill go down her spine: she felt like she was being watched.

Apparently, the others had felt it too.

"On second thought, maybe we could come back later," Dash said with a nervous hint to her otherwise brash and confident tone. Her wings were fluttering quicker than they normally did. "Race you to the portal!" she concluded, and was gone without a backwards glance.

The remaining Bearers of Harmony turned to follow their athletic friend, only to be halted by Twilight.

"Has anyone seen Pinkie Pie?"

Before anypony could answer, the ground beneath Fluttershy's feet started to rumble, causing her to drop the rose that she was holding firmly in her mouth and curl up into a ball of quivering pony. 

"What the hay—?!" somepony exclaimed.

After rumbling for a few more seconds, a cube of grass slowly started to rise, drawing frightened gasps and the stamping of hooves. Twilight prepared a spell to freeze whatever horrid creature had decided that now was a good time to rise from the ground.

All of this was for naught, however, as the block was pushed aside to reveal the smiling face of Pinkie Pie.

"Did somebody call for me?" she asked innocently, her face surprising clean, considering that she was just underground, wading through dirt.

"I—You—We—What?!" exclaimed Twilight. "How did you—? Why are you—?"

Pinkie Pie cocked her head to the side.

Sighing exasperatedly, Twilight shook her head. "Never mind. We're going back to Ponyville, Pinkie, and you're coming with us!"

"Okie-dokie-lokie!" piped Pinkie happily. The exuberant, pink earth pony hopped out of the hole with a single pounce, revealing several wooden items strapped to her back.

"Pinkie Pie, what are those dreadful, dirt covered things?" questioned Rarity, taking a few unintentional steps back to avoid coming into contact with such filth.

"Oh these?" asked Pinkie as she shook her back, causing the items to fall into the hole. "Well, if you're stuck out here during the night, you're supposed to dig a hole and cower in the darkness until daytime! Which is exactly what I was doing!"

With a kick of her hind legs, the dirt block fell back into the perfect-sized hole, leaving the area relatively flat once more.

"Actually, you're supposed to find or make a source of light first, but I couldn't find any, so I decided to look for some! And then I heard my name being called! And then I came here!"

"Wait... what did ya'll just say?" asked Applejack, who was trying to wrap her mind around what exactly Pinkie Pie had just said.

"I said that we should go before it gets any darker! Not-very-nice things come out during the Night! Oh, and Fluttershy? You can stop shaking now!"

Applejack shook her head, not bothering to try and decipher whatever code Pinkie was speaking in.

Fluttershy peeked out from behind her hooves. "T-T-There's n-no m-m-monsters?" she whimpered.

"It's alright, sugarcube," said Applejack, who trotted over to where Fluttershy was currently cowering and gave her a helping hoof up. "Let's get outta this place. Ah'm starting to get the feelin' that we're being watched..."

"W-wait!"

Everypony turned to look at Fluttershy once more.

"I dropped the flower somewhere..."

"Ahh, horseapples," swore Applejack quietly. "Everypony start lookin'!" she called. "We can't go back without some kinda proof!"

After a frantic minute of searching, Rarity cleared her throat and said, "I believe that I have found the pesky rose. There is a slight problem, however..."

"...The rose... well..."

"Well what?" asked Twilight as she cantered over, her hooves leaving imprints on the soft ground.

"It shrunk."

Sure enough, the flower had shrunk to only a tenth of its former size and glory. Not only that, but it was also hovering slightly above the ground, as if repelled by a strange force.

"Why is it doing that? It's... it's creepy!"

More curious than afraid, Twilight bent down and carefully touched the flower with her hoof. From the instant she made contact with the rose, it expanded rapidly, returning to its former size in under a second.

Weird, thought Twilight. I wonder what causes it to expand and contract like that, and for what purpose.

Twilight removed her hoof from the flower, and sure enough, it shrunk back down a miniscule size. When she made contact with it once more, it expanded again.

"That is certainly an... interesting trait," she said cautiously. "I don't sense any magic coming from the flower, so I suppose that might just be another aspect of this cube world."

Fluttershy picked it back up and held it between her teeth.

Forcing herself to look away from the flower, Twilight announced, "Alright, enough setbacks! Let's head back to Ponyville and report our findings!"

Everypony agreed nigh-instantly, so the Bearers of Harmony, sans Rainbow Dash, who should've already been back at the portal, trotted along the squishy and squelching ground. Before they made it all the way there, they met up with Dash along the way.

She was not bearing good news.

"The portal shut down!"

Wide-eyed and bushy tailed, Twilight put a hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder. Whether it meant to calm herself or Rainbow remained yet to be seen.

"What do you mean 'it shut down'?!"

"I mean, the stupid thing isn't working anymore! The weird... skin-like thing on the outside that isn't there anymore!" Dash replied anxiously.

Twilight took her hoof off of Rainbow Dash's shoulder and took off at a gallop towards the portal. She couldn't believe that they were trapped here. No, she wouldn't believe that they were trapped here.

No. No. No! This can't be happening! thought Twilight in a panic when she caught sight of the portal. The dark purple rock that was bordering the portal was still there, but the film that contained the magical energies necessary to transport them was not.

Twilight frantically checked around the entire portal, searching for any discernible reason as to why it had shut down. She even jumped through the structure to double check that it wasn't working.

"Why. The. Hay. Aren't. You. Working!" she yelled, her anger and frustration directed towards the unmoving structure before her.

A few seconds later, the remaining Elements of Harmony rushed over, surprised that their normally shut-away friend was able to sprint as fast as she did.

"See?! I told you!"

Seething with anger, Twilight forced herself to calm down and think about how to get out of this situation. She could try to cast a spell on the frame in hope that it would reactivate, but she had never studied portals in-depth, meaning that she had no idea what any of her spells would do.

In the midst of Twilight's internal monologue, Rarity was the first pony to ask the question that everypony was studiously avoiding.

"Does this mean that we're..."

The usually prim and proper pony gulped.

"...Stuck here?"

Applejack bucked the powered-down portal with her powerful hind legs. The device remained unpowered. "Until we can find out how to turn this here portal back on, Ah suppose we are." The simple truth spoken by Applejack caused a wave of fear to spread throughout the gathered ponies. Only Pinkie Pie seemed unaffected.

"Well, if we're stuck here, then the first thing we should do is find shelter!" she deduced. "I'll start digging—"

"No!" replied a chorus of voices.

"Alrighty then. Maybe Dashie can scout out a cave or something for us to stay in!"

Rainbow Dash, upon hearing this, unfurled her wings and ruffled her feathers in response. "That's... not a bad idea, actually. Good thinking, Pinkie!"

Pinkie Pie beamed from the praise.

After a few murmurings between Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity, they nodded. "Shelter is the best thing we can find right now. We'll come back here tomorrow during the daytime and see if we can fix this stupid portal!

"Rainbow, we'll stay here while you do a flyover: there's no sense in getting separated any more than we need to."

With a game plan set, Rainbow Dash  gave a couple mighty flaps of her wings, launching her into the sky. A few aerial manoeuvres later, Dash took off like an arrow, racing towards the closest mountains.






Day 94, night


And here I was thinking that this day couldn't get any more exciting.

I left my home at a full on sprint, aiming to find this mysterious creature and, if possible, tame it and bring it back before nightfall. The creature in question had been flying in a large circle last I saw it, so I decided to search the area directly in the centre from where it had been circling. 

I was in the process of searching when I heard strange chattering noises coming from a relatively flat area, several hundred meters from my house. I immediately crouched down and made my steps softer, reducing my overall profile. I slowly crept forward, hiding behind trees wherever I could as I investigated the strange noises, hoping that the creature I had seen earlier was the direct cause of the chittering.

When I first laid my eyes upon the sources of the sound, I figured that I had finally lost it.

Instead of the one blue creature that I was expecting, I saw five.

Five completely different looking creatures that shared the same basic traits, yet were completely different from one another. 

In nature, I have observed practically no fundamental differences between members of the same species, and yet here were five creatures that completely mitigated that rule. They are quadrupedal, but that is where any familiarities between themselves and any other critter I knew of ended.

I have no word that seems to fit them properly. 

They are very roughly similar in basic anatomy to a sheep, and I mean very roughly. Their legs make up about half of their total height, and they all have varying fur colours. I originally thought that they had a smooth skin, but after getting a closer look, I realized that their entire body is covered in thin, coarse hairs. Their exotic colourings come from this same fur.

They also have hair growing out from the top of their heads and from their lower backs as well, the latter acting as a tail. I believe the proper term for their head-hair is 'mane', but I'm not entirely sure. Their 'manes' are all of varying colours as well, with only one of the critters sharing the same coat and mane colour. All the rest were different, some slightly and some extravagantly.

The next thing I noticed were the differences between them. Two of the creatures had a strange, pointed... object atop their heads. A horn, I presume, although whether it is an evolutionary trait for defense or aggression remains to be seen. They look awfully sharp.

Only one of the creatures had wings, and it was yellow in colouring rather than light blue, meaning that the other flying critter flew off somewhere else. 

Finally, there were another two that had neither wings, nor a horn. I feel a small amount of pity for them, seeing as how they may be possibly crippled, or worse. Perhaps they lose their extraneous appendages with age, but I honestly cannot tell which ones have seniority simply by looking at them.

As I watched the fascinating creatures with my breath held, I noticed that one of the horned types, a purple one to be specific, was communicating with the others. Using its hooves in combination with the sounds from its mouth, I presumed that it was agitated by the way it was acting.

Why, I asked myself. Why would the creature be angry? Is it lost? Worried about the blue creature, perhaps?

I had never seen any creature short of the suicidal race of Creepers react in anger, seeing as how it is a wasted emotion, requiring energy that could be put to better use in some other way. 

The very fact that the creature was angry indicated greater intelligence than the average level of other critters that populate this land. 

By this point, my curiosity had been steadily increasing until it was almost too much to bear. I continued to inch my way closer at a slow and steady pace, trying to remain undetected for as long as possible.

The next thing I noticed gave me quite the shock. Much to my surprise and continued amazement, I saw the telltale dark purple of obsidian a short distance away from the quadrupeds. From my hidden position behind a few closely packed trees, I could barely see the collection of hardened lava, but I recognized that rock anywhere.

I must explain my fascination, even if it is to simply give me something else to write about while I collect my thoughts.

Obsidian is strong. Ridiculously so. With my pickaxe made of diamond, it still shirks the majority of piercing blows that would split normal stone in half. Obsidian is nigh indestructible, and one day I hope to reinforce my home with it, but until I find a way to easily and conveniently mine it, I refrain from dealing with obsidian. I have never seen it in nature, short of where underground springs and lava pools flow into one another.

Taking those facts into account, imagine my surprise when I find a four-by-five monument of obsidian standing tall and proud in the background with the inner blocks suspiciously absent, leaving it hollow. The fact that a species I have never encountered before were congregating around aforementioned obsidian structure told me several things.

One, it told me that there had to be other intelligent species out there. I knew the Endermen were cunning and curious, but they lacked many of the basic traits of sapience.

Two, it told me that said intelligent species had to be more technologically advanced than me, considering they had managed to obtain fourteen blocks of the extremely tough obsidian. If I had tried to gather that amount, I would be at it for a month.

Third and lastly, it told me that they—the intelligent species—could possibly be trying to communicate, using the obsidian as some sort of message.

This realization did not help my current predicament, however, so I put the thoughts regarding the purple stone and the mysterious other species away to ponder at a later time. There is no question that the quadrupedal creatures before me are obviously intelligent, but I still don't think, even for a second, that they were the ones to leave that obsidian there. 

All the while I made these observations, the creatures continued their ambient chatter with one another. It appears that they have basic communication via sounds and motions, but I found that they also exhibited many facial expressions as well.

Fascinating.

These have to be the strangest creatures I have ever laid eyes upon, even more so than the mysterious Endermen, kamikaze Creepers, or the reanimated Skeletons.

I spotted one of the creatures slightly away from the others, so I decided approach it first, hoping that the lack of its...  herd-mates(?) would make any chances of aggression negligible, as they appear to be a pack-mentality species. 

The creature in question was the yellow, winged one, so I was careful and cautious in my motions: the last thing I wanted was to spook it. I carefully approached the creature, stowing my sword safely away at my side, and retrieving the bushel of wheat from one of my many pockets.

Ahh, wheat. The universally acclaimed grain that every single non-hostile creature seems to go head-over-heels for.

When I was about ten blocks away, the creature finally noticed my presence. I'm not sure whether that shows how capable I am at sneaking or how little they pay attention...

...I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say that I am very sneaky.

After spotting me, an emotion I could only describe as fear flooded the creature's face, causing it to back away slowly and emit several, high-pitched, whine-like sounds. Strangely enough, it chose not to use the wings it handily possessed. 

The yellow critter made several slightly more audible chirping sounds after it failed to attract the other's attention the first time, which then immediately drew the attention of the other creatures. They quickly formed a protective huddle, seemingly relying on sheer numbers to protect themselves. Having not moved since I was spotted, I was still holding the wheat out in front of me. I began my slow approach towards the mysterious multicoloured creatures, but with every step I took, they mirrored it in reverse.

At the time, I thought that the creatures were simply not as docile as the other species I've come across. Unsure how I could convince them that I meant no harm, I decided to stand still and wait for them to come to me; no animal that I have encountered can resist wheat for long. 

Sure enough, as I held my position with the wheat outstretched, one of the creatures, an orange one with neither a head protrusion nor wings, decided to slowly step forward. 

It was wearing a hat. Yes. A hat. The creature was wearing an accessory on its head.

Are they perhaps pets or companions to the beings that placed the obsidian? If so, why would they be left there alone, except for each other? I still don't know the answer to that question.

As I pondered the sheer ridiculousness of the situation I found myself in, I noticed that the creature was being intentionally calm as it purposefully walked towards me. It made no jerky movements, almost like it... 

...Almost like it was trying not to scare me away, rather than the other way around. 

I'm going to put this thought aside for now and continue with the recount.

The gap between myself and the orange critter gradually lessened. Four blocks.

Then three.

Then two.

When it considered itself close enough, the hat-wearing creature looked at me with big, green eyes. Many creatures had done that to me before, but the contact was fleeting and I could not see anything other than dumb intelligence behind their eyes.

This creature was different. It looked at me with equal parts curiosity and suspicion.

Needless to say, I figured that an intelligent creature such as it would make a fine companion. I reached forward a little farther, holding the hay out as tantalizingly as I could manage without trying to force it.

To my continued surprise, the creature took the bushel of wheat, holding it in its mouth, but it didn't make any motions to consume the grain, unlike every other animal that I've found myself in the same situation with.

As soon as it took the wheat out of my hand, the creature carefully retreated back towards the cluster of creatures behind it, still making an effort to keep its motions smooth and steady to not startle me. When it reached the safety of the herd, the orange creature placed the wheat on the ground and started to...

...For lack of a better word, confer with others of its kind. Instead of a cacophony of meaningless chatter like I expected, the creatures spoke in turn and did not override each other.

While the creatures chatted and discussed whatever it was they were discussing, I looked up to the sky. The Sun was in its last phases of sinking behind the massive mountains that I have yet to explore.

Someday.

The creatures conferred for much longer than I anticipated, long enough that it became Night proper, rather than the twilight period in-between. I make it a point to never be outside during the Night, as I have learned from experience that many strange and unnatural things lurk under its cold embrace. I became anxious, feeling unseen eyes being laid upon me. I pulled out my sword as quietly as I could in an attempt to calm my nerves.

I was lucky that I did so, for it saved my life.

A mere second or two after I equipped my sword, I heard the tell-tale rustle of a Creeper attempting to sneak up behind me. I spun around out of pure reflex, my sword swinging in a deadly arc of sharpened iron towards the wretched Creeper.

I managed to make a large incision straight across its torso, but that wasn't enough to mortally injure it. Wounded and agitated that I had foiled its sneak attack, the Creeper let out a hiss that sent chills down my spine and made my hair stand up.

Forcing my fears aside, I rushed forward and closed the gap between the Creeper and myself, finishing it off with a single, decapitating swing before it could ignite and engulf us both in a fiery explosion.

Breathing heavily, more out of stunned shock than exhaustion, I turned back towards the creatures, expecting them to have fled at any instance of violence. Instead, they were all staring back me in what I could only discern as awe. 

I didn't know if these strange and exotic creatures were violent when they were in groups, but I had to at least try to save their lives: they wouldn't last an hour outside during night-time.

I switched my sword from my right hand to my left, and tried to convey the motions of follow me to the creatures. If they were intelligent and trusting enough to follow, then I would do everything in my power to find out exactly where they came from.

And, if necessary, return them to where they belong.

With my mind made up, I jogged back towards my house at a brisk pace, one that I could keep up for several hours without stopping. Occasionally, I'd glance behind me to double-check that the creatures were still following me.

They were. They kept a respectful distance, but they were undoubtedly following me. 

Before long, I arrived once more at my house. My home. I built it from the ground up using nothing but my own two hands and the tools I created. It isn't the prettiest, but it is warm, cozy, and most of all, safe.

When I stepped onto the piece of black wool I used as a doormat, I glanced behind me and saw that the creatures had become a little more brave, as they were only a few blocks away from me, rather than the fifteen or so gap that they had previously enforced. I also noticed that the blue, winged one that I had first spotted seemed to have returned to the group while I wasn't looking.

Turning back to my home, I bent over and pushed the specific button combination that unlocks my front door.

Yes, I realize that having a lock may seem a little paranoid when you're the only person around, but in my defence, you can never be too careful. Weird things tend to happen when you least expect them.

For example, a Creeper once fell down my chimney, which is why there are locking iron bars in front of it now. How did it even get onto my roof in the first place?

Never mind. 

Anyway, I pressed the combination, causing the door to open with a whir of machinery and a soft click after. I wiped my shoes on the floor mat, as they were quite dirty from running through the muck, and checked for any uninvited guests as I did so. Like I wrote before; you can never be too careful.

By the time I was done my brief check, I turned back to see the creatures standing right outside the door. They made no motions to continue forward, but they looked up at me like they were expecting something.

It took me a few moments to realize that they were asking permission to enter. Of all the things they could've done, waiting patiently for my consent was one that I least expected. I waved my hand in a forward motion that I hoped would be interpreted as come in. 

Thankfully, they seemed to understand perfectly and proceeded to enter single file through my doorway. I had to stop the first one with a raised hand before it walked onto my carpet and absolutely tarnished it with its muddy hooves. 

The creature that I halted, one with a horn and an almost pure-white coat, seemed almost affronted when I made of demonstration of wiping my feet along the black mat. It was only after a different creature, one with a very bright pink and mane, bounced up and down while chittering loudly about something that the white one decided to follow my lead. I swear that it glared at me while I watched it wipe the mud off.

After all the creatures had cleaned themselves, I motioned for them to go to the right, which is where my living room lies. They chittered back and forth with each other for a few seconds before doing as I asked. I locked the door behind them, resetting the locking mechanism and preventing anything from being able to enter or exit. The last thing I want is for the creatures to leave while it's still dark outside and forget to close the door behind them. That would not bode well for me.

I walked into the living room and lit the fireplace with a flint and steel that was placed there for that very purpose. The creatures were still standing, and they looked quite uncomfortable, so I motioned for them to have a seat on the floor or on one of the various couches and chairs that I have made.

They are all made of the same material; soft, comfortable wool.

After the creatures had situated themselves, I immediately went for my quill, ink, and paper, intent on writing these events down.

And now here we are. It's been several hours since I've started writing, and the creatures have finally drifted off into sleep.

Well, all except for the horned, purple one that is watching me from its position on the couch.

I have no idea what lies in store for myself and the creatures tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have thought of a plan before morning.

It's late. I'm going to bed.
> Chapter Three: Other Side of the Coin
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cube Land

Three: Other Side of the Coin




"M—Monster!"

Twilight halted her pacing, looking up from the groove she had dug up from her relentless patrol. She loved Fluttershy dearly, but sometimes it was hard to take her seriously after so many 'pony who cried Timberwolf' incidents.

This time, however, there actually was a monster. And it looked like it was trying to isolate Fluttershy from the rest of them.

"By Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed. "Everypony, monster!"

The ponies—sans Fluttershy—heeded Twilight's call, and formed a protective bulwark, moving to intercept the strange, tall, bipedal monster before it could get to her. To Fluttershy's credit, she stood as still as a statue with only the occasional tremor racking through her body.

Twilight was preparing a spell that would leave naught but a scorch mark upon the ground where the creature stood. Before she could unleash her wrath towards the unfortunate events that led to this point on the monster that was trying to steal away one of her closest friends, it...

...Stopped. The bipedal monster stopped and backed a few steps away. Not far enough to make it any less of a threat, but enough to say I'm not trying to hurt you.

Confused, Twilight slowly let go of the building energy in her horn, and observed this strange creature.

It was tall, much taller than her: it would rival, if not surpass, Princess Celestia in height. The creature was much like everything else in this world—as in, all of its features were square and cubed. From its long legs to the two arms that hung at its sides, even the large head, everything was square-shaped. A short, brown mane coated the top part of its head and fine stubble of hair grew around its chin.

The biped also seemed to be wearing some sort of primitive clothing; pants and a sleeveless shirt, coloured blue and teal respectively. The apparel looked like it had seen better days, as there were rips, scratches, and suspicious stains all along the surface. Two light-blue—and square, obviously—eyes watched Twilight with a curious expression.

"What the hay is that?" asked Applejack, voicing the question that everypony was silently asking.

"I don't know," replied Twilight Sparkle after a quiet length, "but it doesn't seem to be going away."

True to her observation, the tall, somewhat menacing biped simply stood there, unmoving except for its two eyes. Watching. It took Twilight a few more seconds to realize that the creature wasn't just observing, but seemed to be offering something to them, as grasped in one of its hands was... some form of grain?

It somewhat looked like wheat. Or at least, this land's variation of wheat.

"That... thing has a weapon!"

Rarity's frantic statement made Twilight's blood run cold. She looked to where Rarity was pointing her dirt-laden hoof, and sure enough, attached to the creatures side on some sort of harness or belt, was a silvery-grey sword, made yet again out of tiny, interlocking cubes.

What does it want? Twilight asked herself. Why is it offering us wheat, yet it carries such a blatant tool of harm and violence around like it's nothing?

Twilight felt another cold-shiver run down her spine, similar to the one she felt before. It felt like she was being watched. And the feeling wasn't coming from the biped in front of her...

"Maybe it's only trying to protect itself," Twilight thought aloud. "Maybe it's just curious about us, and brought a weapon in case we were hostile."

She wasn't sure who she was trying to convince: her friends or herself.

"But... we would never hurt anypony!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. After glancing and stroking her chin with a hoof, she added, "Or any weird-tall-bipedal-creature-thing, for that matter!"

"While that might be obvious to a pony, that—" Twilight motioned towards the silent creature with a slight head bob, "—is not a pony."

"That it ain't," confirmed Applejack. "Ah hope your 'maybes' are right, Twilight, 'cause if it ain't friendly, Ah'm goin' to buck it so hard that it'll never, ever mess with us again!"

With that, Applejack took a couple steps forward, her green eyes never leaving the creature's blue ones. She snorted and almost pawed at the ground, but stopped, as the biped might have taken that as an act of aggression.

"Applejack!" hissed Twilight. "What are you doing?!"

Without looking back at Twilight, Applejack replied, with a tone that brooked no argument, "Ah'm goin' to see what it wants."

Making every attempt to not give in to her baser instincts and plant her two front hooves into the damp soil, pivot her body, and buck the aberrant biped all the way to next week, Applejack walked with agonizing slowness towards the cube-creature.

To the creature's credit, it met her gaze readily. Applejack saw many conflicting emotions beneath the creature's calm, collected exterior: worry, excitement, sorrow, curiosity, and many more states of mind that she couldn't name, but Twilight probably could.

Lost in the two windows of the creature's soul, Applejack nearly jumped in surprise when something just seemed to click. She didn't understand what or why, but the creature was looking at her differently now. More wearily.

Only a pony-length separated Applejack and the strange biped. With a small amount of hesitation, the creature raised one arm from its lowered position and seemed to offer the otherworldly grain to her, doing so in a slow and controlled motion.

Watching with bated breath, Twilight swallowed nervously. The tension between Applejack and the creature was thick, like a melted popsicle on a hot summer day. Twilight was sure that Applejack didn't notice, but both her and the biped were taut as springs: both would've reacted to the slightest irregular motion in each other's movements.

Twilight heaved a sigh of relief when Applejack managed to grab the wheat-like grain without incident. The farm pony backed away slowly, keeping her eyes on the biped the whole time while she returned to the rest of the ponies.

Spitting out the grain with an unladylike ptooey loud enough to make Rarity cringe, Applejack told Twilight and the others about what she had learned from the staring contest.

By the end of it, Twilight was left with more questions than she started with. Most of them began with 'why'. Choking back all of her questions for the time being, she tried to formulate a plan while the blocky Sun slowly set behind her.

Time was running out. Even Pinkie was looking around nervously.

"Uhh, girls? We really don't want to be outside at night," she emphasized, making a point to look over her shoulder to check that nothing was there.

"I know, I know," snapped Twilight, a little harsher than she intended. "But where are we going to go? Rainbow Dash hasn't come back yet, that bipedal creature is still staring at us, and soon it'll be too dark to do anything!"

"Umm... T—Twilight?" asked Fluttershy, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Not now, Fluttershy: I'm trying to think."

"I'm pretty sure this is important..."

"Fine. What is it?"

"Creature! Sword! Sharp!"

Whirling around, Twilight saw the biped standing straight up, its shoulders no longer hunched over, holding onto the sharp instrument of death with one meaty hand. Taking an unintentional step back, she raced through questions in a flurry of neural synapses.

Why did it equip its weapon?! Is it angry at us?! 

...Was it because we didn't say thank you?!

Twilight stopped her mental train-wreck-waiting-to-happen when she saw the dark outline of another creature approach the first.

The newcomer was tall, almost the same height as the original, but that was where any semblance of similarities ended. A shifting cloud in the sky revealed—with one of the last rays of sunlight that this day would see—the creature's details.

The monster's details.

It was a uniform sickly, forest green colour, and seemed to be covered in a series of protective scales that looked strikingly similar to leaves. It had no upper limbs. Where the biped had arms, bulky shoulders, and a head attached to the torso via a neck, the monster was solely in possession of an elongated, thin torso with its head located at the top. Two eyes, almost entirely black save for a small red dot in the center that acted as a sort of pupil, stared ferociously at the biped. The monster's expression was equally terrifying; its mouth was locked in an almost perfect representation of frown, slightly open as if silently screaming. Twilight couldn't see a nose or any form of ears on it.

Four short, stubby legs propelled it forward—they seemed to branch off the bottom of the centre column of the monster, attached to the side like a spider's leg.

Cold, quiet fear seeped into Twilight. Where the biped was tall—and still somewhat scary, she reminded herself—this newcomer was something straight out of a horror story.

Like one of the master martial artists that featured prominently in some of the comics that Rainbow Dash enjoyed, the biped spun around in a deadly arc—sword extended—and sliced a deep incision into the green, creeping monster's overlarge torso. Twilight thought that would've been the end of it.

Instead, seemingly unharmed, the monster hissed. Like a snake. Twilight blinked, and found herself thrust into an old memory.





As a studious filly, Twilight rarely ventured outside, choosing instead to stay within the nice, cozy confines of her imagination and the pre-determined worlds created by others. Part of the reason for her withdrawal into books and literature was caused by a simple, yet powerful event that stayed with her.

One day, as young Twilight was making one of her infrequent ventures outside—to sign out books at the Canterlot library, no less—she happened to take a wrong turn, engrossed in her book as she was. Twilight only realized that she was somewhere she didn't recognize when the smooth, cobbled stone beneath her hooves changed into soft, padded grass.

Blinking owlishly and stowing away her book, Twilight turned in a slow circle, marvelling at the garden she wandered into. Bushes and trees, vines and hedges made up the majority of the plant life there. Entranced with her new surroundings, it took a rustling of grass near one of her hooves to break Twilight out of her reverie.

Curious and unafraid, Twilight bent her knees and lowered herself to get a closer look at the ground. Looking back up at her with cold, black eyes was a common Garter snake, its tongue flicking upwards and nearly hitting Twilight's muzzle. Twilight had never seen a snake before. She had read about them, of course, and seen pictures in anatomy books, but she had never seen one in the flesh.

Without a second thought, Twilight picked up the snake in her levitation's embrace, holding it above her head like she would a stack of books. Almost immediately, the snake began to struggle and squirm, wiggling around like...

Well, like a snake.

Startled by the reptile's jerky movements, Twilight lost her concentration, causing the poor Garter snake to fall directly onto the studious filly's head. The snake—already having an unpleasant day, only made worse by the pony—did the only thing it could.

It hissed.

It hissed like it never had before, calling upon the ancient snake deities to imbue its hiss with the power to scare, startle, and instil fear.

As if a cold, somewhat slimy creature dropping onto your head wasn't enough to terrify the poor filly, the menacing hiss spewed directly into Twilight's ear certainly was. Shrieking at the top of her lungs, Twilight bolted out of the garden and didn't let up her pace until she was safely locked within her room. She never wanted to lay her eyes on a snake again.





Feeling the same way that she did all those years ago from the monster's hiss, Twilight tensed her muscles, her body already preparing to turn tail, flee, and run, run, run. It was an unknown factor, something that she couldn't prepare for, couldn't plan for. The biped couldn't hurt it, and it would only keep coming. For them.

For her.

No! Twilight screamed inwardly, forcing her trembling muscles to not spring into action and her hooves to remain rooted. I will not abandon my friends, no matter what! Together, we can overcome anything!

Just as Twilight regained control of her faculties, she bore witness to the biped lunging forward with a speed that seemed improbable for something so big and cleanly slicing the green monster's head off. The body remained upright for a few seconds before falling over on its side, stubby legs twitching. The head had flown in the opposite direction to Twilight.

Twilight looked side-to-side, and took notice of her friend's astonished expressions that probably mirrored her own.

The creature left standing flicked its sword, causing a few droplets of the monster's ichor to rain down, splashing onto the ground only a few steps from them. Twilight swore she saw smoke rise from where the globules landed on the sodden grass.

She looked back up at the creature, and saw something flicker within its deep, blue eyes. Whatever it was, the biped seemed to have decided something. Placing the sword in its other hand—from right to left—the creature pointed at the ponies, lingering on Twilight, and made two sharp beckoning motions with its meaty appendage. Almost as if it wanted them to follow...

Surprising everypony present, the biped left without another motion or a spoken word, jogging away with more than a little haste in its step.

Twilight was the first to break the painful silence that follow the biped's departure.

"Was it just me, or does it seem like that... it wants us to follow it?" questioned Twilight, hoping to Celestia that she hadn't imagined the beckoning.

"It's not just you, Twi: Ah'm pretty sure that it wants us to follow it," replied Applejack. "The only thing is... why? Why does it want us to follow?"

"Maybe it's offering us shelter!" exclaimed Pinkie, bouncing up and down in excitement. "I bet it has a nice, cozy house with a fireplace and—"

"Honestly, Pinkie, do you really think something like that has a home that is on par with our standards?" asked Rarity.

In a flurry of feathery wings, Rainbow Dash dove from the sky and landed beside them, eliciting a surprised yelp from Fluttershy, who was about to offer her own opinion. "Is everypony all right?" Dash panted. "That... thing didn't hurt anypony, did it? 'Cause if it did, I'm gonna—"

"We're fine, Rainbow," interrupted Applejack. Adjusting the brim of her Stetson, as it was knocked off-centre by Rainbow Dash's landing, she continued. "In fact, we were just discussin' whether we should follow the creature or not."

"Wait, what? Why?!"

"Because the bipedal creature wants us to follow it... for some reason," explained Twilight. "Rainbow, did you find any sort of cave or other type of shelter for us to spend the night?"

Rainbow Dash sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck with a foreleg. "No..." she admitted. "But I saw this weird pit-thing that had some light coming from it. We could try there."

"Where?"

Dash pointed a wing over the small rise that the biped had hurried away over. "That way."

"That settles it then," Twilight decided. "If that biped is friendly and has a nicer place to stay than your pit, Dash, then we'll spend the night there. Does everypony agree?"

Everypony nodded their assent. Rarity took longer than anypony else to make her decision, but she eventually agreed.

Taking a collective deep breath, Twilight and company climbed up and over the protrusion of dirt, following in the biped's prints as the Sun fully set and the monsters came out to play.
> Chapter Four: Miscommunication
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cube Land

Four: Miscommunication




Day 95, morning


I awoke as soon as the Sun's rays graced the few portions of my body that weren't protected by my apparel. I always slept with my clothes on, as experience has taught me that I need to be prepared for anything at any time. As I stretched my limbs, my mind drifted towards the how, what, and why regarding the strange quadrupeds.

How did they get here?

What was I going to do with them?

Why—this was an extremely important why—were they not cubed like every other creature, shrubbery, block, and everything else in this whole plane of existence?

I scratched my square chin, and the stubble that had formed there overnight. The first question was still a mystery to me, but the second was fairly easily answerable: I would act as their protector until I discovered the true origin of their appearance here.

If it so happened that they were pets or companions of another yet-undiscovered race... I'd cross that bridge when I came to it.

Or, if need be, burn it.

The third question, however... I had no answer to. They are a complete juxtaposition to everything else in this cube world. Where everything else is equal and precise, they are varying and of ambiguous measurement.

They have... curves. I know the word, but I have not had reason to use it before. 

The creatures are obviously not from around here; that much is certain. Perhaps they are visitors from a strange land, whose purpose I cannot fathom.

Bah.

I carefully opened the door to my room, acting as quietly as I could, hoping not to awaken the creatures if they happened to still be asleep. No matter who or what you are, being woken up by something else is always startling, and that was something I wanted to avoid.

It was fortuitous that I did so, because all but one of the creatures were sleeping. The only one that was awake was the purple, horned one that had watched me write last night's journal entry. It raised its head and followed me as soon as I tiptoed into its line of vision. The critter seemed to be...

How do I put this...

...It seemed to be... dissecting me with its eyes. Pulling me apart piece by piece, just to see how I worked, how I ticked.

Definitely not the behaviour I expected.

As I silently made my way across the carpeted hallway, intent on entering my kitchen, I tried to ignore the stare that I was being given. After a brief flash of insight, I realized that it might simply be hungry, considering they did not partake in the offered wheat from last night.

I walked through the double doors that cut off my kitchen from the rest of my home, and felt the smooth sandstone beneath my bare, square feet. I embraced the beams of sunlight that seemed to fill the entire kitchen, due mostly to the fact that the far wall is made almost entirely of glass, allowing both a beautiful view of my backyard and the lake beyond.

Taking in a deep contented breath, I made my way to a device I called a 'fridge', named so for its function; I had collected some snow from a forest of tall, dark trees, located many thousands of blocks away—a tundra. I had only taken them on a whim. Imagine my surprise when the snow didn't melt, but instead retained both its cube shape and ice-cold tendencies.

Realizing that I could use this to my advantage in regards to keeping meat and fruit fresh for a longer time, I built a small 'cold box' that used the snow as a cold source. 

I renamed it shortly after to 'fridge', a play on the word 'frigid'. Personally, I think it sounds a lot better than 'cold box'.

I opened up the fridge and gathered up a few crisp, red apples and a bucket of milk for my breakfast. Placing my morning food on the kitchen table, I reached up towards the cupboards and grabbed some bread for the creatures. I wasn't sure if they left the wheat behind or consumed it before following me, but regardless, I figured that they must be hungry.

In curiosity, I went back to the kitchen doorway and poked my head around the corner, wondering if the purple one had awoken the others. I was half-expecting six sets of eyes to be ominously staring back at me. Thankfully—for whatever reason—the purple, horned critter decided to fall back asleep. It was laying on its back, belly pointed towards the window and the solitary sunbeam that decided to shine through. One of its folded legs pawed at the air.

Wondering how deeply they were asleep, I knocked on the wooden wall quietly. None stirred. I decided to knock harder. Again, the creatures refused to respond, except for the blue, winged one that let out a small snort before breathing easily once more. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw the yellow creature open an eye, but when I looked back, both eyes were closed and the breathing was relaxed.

I stifled a chuckle. Whatever they were, they were clearly not morning creatures. Seeing as how I had some time to myself, I decided to tend to my garden, breakfast not forgotten but set aside. I hoped that none of the creatures would wake up before I returned.

I went back into my kitchen and exited through the door at the rear of the room, which leads to my backyard. I made a stop at the well and quickly washed my face before turning my attention towards the neat rows of my garden.

Rows upon rows of wheat stared back, all of them in different stages of growth. Almost a third of my backyard, a total of one hundred and sixty blocks, is set aside for the growing and harvesting of wheat. Partially due to my foresight and partially due to convenience, my backyard ends in a large, clear lake that I use to hydrate my crops and, on occasion, gather fish from. The fact that most creatures here cannot swim only furthers the usefulness of my home placement.

Another part of my backyard is dedicated to growing melons, which are a type of fruit. I still haven't discovered the most efficient way of growing them yet.

The last portion is split between the chickens I have penned up—for eggs, and on special occasions, meat—and a wide-open space that I use to test my more... explosive experiments. After blowing a hole in the side of my house, I decided that my research into sulphur and other mixes would be more conducive to my well-being if I did so outside.

As I went through my routine of picking the finished wheat and burying fresh seeds after, I heard the telltale squeaking of my back door opening. I immediately whirled around in surprise, grabbing for my sword that wasn't there; I had left it inside. I still had my iron hoe on me, but it wasn't much of a defensive weapon.

I'm not sure who was more surprised: myself, or the soft yellow winged creature that decided to join me outside. My rapid movement must have startled the poor creature rather fiercely, as it backpedaled in fright, causing chunks of dirt and grass to go flying until it hit the outside wall of my house. The creature proceeded to cower against the wall, its forelegs covering its eyes, and its wings flared. Whimpering noises followed.

I looked down at the creature, and then at my shadow on the ground in front of me. My shadow was tall and menacing, and the hoe that I held in a defensive stance only amplified that. It was then that I realized just how frightening I was to the small, colourful creature: it was probably half-blinded from the Sun, and only managed to see my rather scary silhouette.

I dropped the gardening tool and crouched down as low as I could without actually sitting on the ground. I still towered over the creature, only much less than before. I stayed a respectful distance away, and clicked my tongue a few times to get the creatures attention. It peered at me through one eye. I raised my hands to show that they were empty.

That seemed to do the trick, as the creature came out of its cowering state and seemed to realize that I wasn't going to hurt it. Climbing back to its hooves, the creature flapped its wings once, extending them to a length that I hadn't realized they were capable of. They look a lot smaller when they're folded up against the creature's sides. I also noticed that there were many feathers—some miniscule, and others much larger—present along the creature's wings, much like a chicken. Except chickens have feathers everywhere along their bodies while these strange creatures have a fine, coarse fur.

The little yellow creature looked up at me with two large, teal-coloured eyes. Even though I had stared into one of their eyes before—the orange one's—I was still surprised  by the sheer amount of emotion and depth that they possessed. I was struck, dumfounded, and trapped by its stare: No matter how much I struggled to break free from its gaze, I couldn't.

I still don't know exactly what occurred or why. Perhaps it was some sort of defensive ability, being able to freeze their enemies by simply staring at them. Only, the yellow winged creature didn't seem to be either aggressive or defensive. Maybe they don't have any control over it.

Regardless of the stare's purpose, I was still locked in place with the yellow creature. The only thing that managed to break it was a spider leaping off my roof and landing not two blocks away from me, causing both the creature and myself to jump back in surprise.

Spiders are strange creatures. They are fairly large and bulbous, having eight-limbs converging from the central body—the spider's thorax. Spiders have the unique ability to climb on nearly any surface, with the exception of liquids. I don't know whether they take some sort of perverse pleasure in startling other beings, as I find that they frequently ambush both myself, and on slightly rarer occasions, monsters that wander too far into their territory. Normally, they keep to their caverns and trenches—which is where they nest—but sometimes they venture elsewhere.

There are two variants that I have seen: the regular variety that can be found almost anywhere, and a specific breed that only lives in caves, known as cave spiders. Regular spiders are a dark grey, almost black colour, with the exception of their eight, beady, red eyes. The cave spiders are a dark blue and much smaller than the regular spiders, but what they lack in size they make up with a poisonous bite. It's not fatal, but it blurs my vision and reduces my overall mental cohesion. I've tried to harvest their poison for use on arrows, but I haven't managed to as of yet.

Another strange thing about regular spiders—not cave spiders, as I've never seen one leave its cave—is that they are almost completely docile and non-aggressive when they are in an area with high quantities of light. None of the other creatures of the Night have shown anything even remotely connected to passivity, which leads me to believe that spiders are simply territorial creatures. Still, they are dangerous at Night and during underground forays, and I have no qualms about killing them in self-defense.

The poor little quadruped jumped nearly two blocks high in pure, unadulterated fear. In mid-air, it spread its wings and flapped them a couple of times, then proceeded to land on my roof and watch both the spider and I from its vantage point. I grabbed the discarded hoe from where I tossed it aside and turned to face the spider.

The spider, to its credit, didn't look fazed in the slightest. It looked up at me with its eight, red eyes and blinked at me, one eye at a time, creating a sort of rippling effect. It made no move to attack me or the yellow creature on my roof, but I couldn't just leave it in my backyard.

I turned the hoe around and began prodding the spider with the rounded, wooden end towards the open water. It hissed every time the stick connected, but it didn't reciprocate the nudges I was giving it. Eventually, after many pokes and prods, I managed to shove the spider into the water. What happened next amused me greatly.

The spider stayed afloat for a few seconds, using its eight limbs as a flotation device. It was practically hugging the water! The spider slowly spun around in circles, drifting towards the centre of the large lake, its body completely flattened out on the water's surface. The spider did not look amused in the slightest. Its downfall came when it tried to paddle in the direction of the shore; without all of its legs supporting it, the spider lost its floating capabilities and fell into the water, limbs flailing and splashing. It resurfaced a few seconds later looking miserable and drenched. After the spider drifted away and out of my vision, I heard a very grumpy-sounding hiss.

With the eight-legged menace dealt with, I turned back towards my house and realized that I still had a startled critter to coax down from my roof. Thankfully, when the yellow creature saw that the spider was no longer around, it fluttered down from my roof and landed a few blocks away. It looked up at me, and yawned adorably, probably from the Sun at my back.

From the creature's yawn, I determined that it had a vegetarian diet, as the teeth weren't sharp and pointed for ripping flesh like the tundra wolves. Instead, they were flat for crushing wheat and grass like sheep, cows, and pigs.

After yawning, the little creature attempted to... start a conversation with me? At least, that's what it seemed like to me: it kept chirping in its melodic language, paused—as if to give me a chance to respond—and when I didn't respond, tried to communicate something else. What strange behaviour, especially from such a timid creature.

To the creature's credit, it tried its hardest to tell me... something. It even went as far as motioning with its forelegs and hooves. If I had the time, I would've spent the day trying to decipher the motions and chirps from the creature, but I had stuff to do. First off, I hadn't eaten my breakfast and the gardening—along with the pesky spider problem—had worked up my appetite.

I ripped off a chunk of bread and offered it to yellow creature. Strangely, it shook its head, declining the offer. I knew that the creatures must be hungry, so why decline the bread? I seriously doubted that they were vegetarians that didn't like bread. No, there had to be another reason. I saw the yellow critter eyeing the bucket of apples, so I offered it one. Again, it refused.

Can't say that I didn't try.

I mentally shrugged and ate my fill of bread and apples. I checked the clock on the wall, and noticed that the day was well under way. The creatures would be getting up, whether they wanted to or not.

Either the yellow one understood that I wanted the others awake and conscious or it thought that they had slept too long. Whichever was the case, it chittered and chirped softly, which caused the other creatures to awaken, stretch, yawn, and blearily look around. The blue one proved to be quite the heavy sleeper; it took two of the creatures—the orange one and the pink one—to raise the blue one from its slumber.

I stayed off to the side, partially obscured by a shadowy corner of the room. I didn't want to startle any of the creatures by making the first thing they saw when they woke up being my tall form. My non-intervening was also due to the fact that I wanted to observe the creatures without them knowing that I was there. I was sure that their behaviour would radically change if they knew that I was watching.

I was right in my assumption.

The same creature that took the longest to wake up was, ironically, the first to spot me. The blue one immediately flared its wings—which, in hindsight, seemed much more powerful than the yellow creature's—and proceeded to stare me down. It called to the other creatures in a much different tone than the yellow one; it was deeper and more aggressive, which was to be expected, given the situation.

Upon having the winged, blue creature alert them, the others nestled together in a sort of 'V' shape, with the blue creature at the helm, flanked by the purple one and the orange on its left and right, respectively. Something about how defensive the blue creature was being made me think that it was the de-facto pack or herd leader; I'm not sure what to call their little group yet. It was only when the blue creature stamped its hoof and snorted in irritation did I move. I had remained motionless the entire time up until that point.

I really wish that I could understand what happened next, but alas, some things just can't be explained and simply are.

I took one step—only one step—and before I could do anything, one of the creatures, the two-toned pink one that literally bounced into my home the previous night, pranced into my living room, coming from the kitchen. It was eating the apple that I had offered the yellow creature. I remember it was that apple specifically: it had a solitary green spot amidst the solid red exterior.

I was dumbfounded. I still am. Somehow, the pink creature managed to sneak out of the living room and into the kitchen without my knowing, and I was watching them. It's not like I wasn't paying attention. By some of the other creature's expressions, I could tell that they were just as confused as I was, if not more. As the creature ate, my house was silent except for the loud crunching after every bite. The silence was broken when the pink creature finished the last bite and started chirping excitedly to the other critters. Its voice was much higher pitched than either the blue or the yellow one.

Thankfully, the painful silence was broken after the pink creature spoke: the other creatures started talking and discussing among themselves in their own language. I noticed that they use their forelegs and hooves only when putting specific emphasis on certain words or actions. The pink creature bounced back towards the main group, a smile written on its muzzle. 

I shook my head and went back into the kitchen, not wanting to think about what had just occurred. I still can't quite wrap my head around it. Can they teleport, like the enigmatic Endermen? Surely not.

Hopefully not.

I gathered a few loaves of bread and the bucket of apples for the creatures to eat, thinking that after they saw one of their own eating, they would be more inclined to trust me and my food. They still watched me wearily as I placed the food down on the low table in the living room, and they sniffed and stared at the food for a long while before consuming, but they did eat.

The whole time they were eating, I've been writing this entry. They eat slowly and gesture frequently.

One last thing before I head out.

Each of the creatures has a strange marking on both sides of their rear legs, on the flank portion. They vary immensely, from an elaborate design of what I can only assume is a star on the purple one, to a cloud with a multi-coloured bolt of lightning on the blue one, and three apples placed in a triangular fashion on the orange one. Yes. Apples. The very same fruit that they are all eating.

I will be calling the orange one 'Apple' from now on, for obvious reasons. I will have to think of other names at a later time, as I have dallied far too long writing this log, and I must be off.
> Chapter Five: Realization
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cube Land

Five: Realization




Twilight munched half-heartedly on an apple as her thoughts drifted. While the latter in itself was no abnormal event, the thing—idea, rather—that she was thinking of would be considered strange or downright silly under any other circumstances. The circumstances she was under and the things she had seen, however, made her current thought process inevitable.

From the expertly built house that included a fireplace, living room, bedroom, kitchen, carpeted floors, and Celestia-knew-what-else; to the garden that Fluttershy assured was expertly maintained, everything pointed to the bipedal creature's sapience.

That wasn't even taking into account the fact that it was capable of both metallurgy and calligraphy, if it indeed was writing the night before and not scribbling meaningless nothings.

Twilight shivered in excitement. This was big.

No... it was huge. Bigger than anything she had imagined previously. Finding and exploring an uncharted world was one thing, but meeting an entirely new and sapient species that lived in said world was a completely different ball game.

She could only imagine what this would mean for both ponies and... whatever race the biped belonged to. Cubian? Twilight wrinkled her nose: the name didn't quite fit. She would've kept trying and failing to guess the creature's name and race, but she had other things to do.

Namely, convince the biped of their sapience. While nopony could ignore its intelligence, Twilight was certain that it wasn't aware of theirs. Sure, it had sheltered and fed them, but nothing more indicated that it wasn't simply acting out of common courtesy to some simple creatures—of which they certainly were not.

Twilight pondered how to go about this monumental task as she took another bite of the apple made up of tiny cubes.

Everything was so strange here: even the objects that should've been circles, weren't. It was as if large quantities of small blocks were arranged in an irregular pattern in order to give the illusion of a circular face, whilst still remaining cubed. Twilight shook her head. It boggled her mind just how alien this world was.

After swallowing the last bite of her apple, Twilight glanced at Applejack, who was the closest. The farm pony was having a staring contest with a once-bitten apple.

"Ah don't understand how an apple as strange as this manages to be tastier than the ones Ah've grown my whole life," Applejack muttered under her breath.

Twilight stood up and cleared her throat. When she successfully attracted everypony's mostly undivided attention, she said, "Girls, I think that we need to discuss a topic that we've all been avoiding: namely, how to convince our host—"

As one, all six heads swiveled to look at the biped. It was sitting in a chair located in the corner, head down in concentration as it scrawled furiously into a perfectly rectangular book. As if feeling the dozen eyes staring, the cuboidal creature stopped writing and looked up. After glancing around with a confused expression, it seemingly dismissed what it saw by shaking its head, then went back to scribbling.

"—that we're every bit as smart as it is."

"Well how are we supposed to do that?" asked Rainbow Dash from her sprawled position on one of the couches. "It doesn't even blink an eye when we talk, and even 'Shy giving the Stare couldn't faze it."

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down on the other end of the couch in thought. "Maybe it can't hear?" she supplied.

Dash twisted around to peer at both sides of the biped's head. "Actually, I think you might be right, Pinkie," she said. "I don't think it has ears—"

"I-It's a he," Fluttershy interrupted softly. All eyes turned to her, save the biped's.

"Really? Are you sure?" asked Twilight.

Fluttershy nodded.

Twilight frowned in thought and observed the biped once more, this time taking Fluttershy's words into account. Having only one member of the biped's species made it hard to ascertain exactly what constituted masculinity in their case. "How do you know?" she questioned, wrought with curiosity.

Fluttershy fidgeted with her hair, unused to the attention."When I accidently used the Stare, I—" She paused, trying to think of the best way to interpret. "—I saw into his mind. No, that's not right. It's not like seeing, it's more like... feeling, but without actually... well, feeling." Fluttershy sighed in melancholy and seemed to shrink a little. "I can't really explain... I should probably just stop talking now..."

Ever supportive, Rarity stepped forward and said, "Absolutely not! You're doing an exemplary job of explaining something that shouldn't be explainable, and I implore you to continue!" Fluttershy swelled a teensy bit from the praise. "However did you figure out that the biped is male? I certainly don't see it myself..."

"There were some old memories," Fluttershy explained, her voice gaining a confident tone. "I saw his parents, and they—" she sniffed, "—they said that they were proud of him, no matter what his choices in life were.

"That's all I could understand," she lamented. "I wish I could've seen more, but our minds are too different, and the way his thoughts are organized is... too alien."

"So you looked into its—uh, his—head and saw some memories?" asked Rainbow Dash. When Fluttershy nodded, Dash exclaimed, "That's awesome! Kinda creepy, but awesome!" After thinking for a moment, she added, "Wait, why didn't you tell us earlier, 'Shy? Isn't that stuff important?"

Fluttershy rubbed a hoof against her foreleg. "I didn't want to freak anypony out," she mumbled. "And I didn't want you girls to think I was crazy..."

"Fluttershy! Of course we wouldn't think you were crazy," said Twilight. "It's just a little... odd, that's all."

Before another word could be spoken, the biped closed his book with an audible whap and stood up, immediately drawing a hush from everypony present. Twilight took a step backwards to let him by, with the biped barely acknowledging her presence. She watched him walk down the hallway and stop by the room that was almost certainly his bedroom. The biped glanced back briefly before closing the door behind.

To herself, Twilight muttered, "How can we make him realize that we're just as smart as he is?"

Her eyes drifted towards the biped's chair—more specifically, towards the book and quill that remained on the armrest.





Day 95, late afternoon


Too much has happened. Far too much. I doubt I can recall it all, but that won't stop me from trying.

...

After gathering the spelunking equipment that I would need to venture into the Pit once more, I left my bedroom, mind clouded and heavy. My subconscious told me that I was missing something painfully obvious, but I couldn't decipher what it was. With my head down and staring at the pattern of the carpet, lost in thought, I didn't notice that the creatures were waiting for me. When I looked up, I stopped and took a step backwards in surprise.

They had moved from their previous positions and had assembled in a rough concave, facing my direction. Their piercing, intelligent eyes bored into me as if expecting something. A feeling of danger pulsated from within, which I found strange considering I had never felt endangered in their presence before. Unbidden, my hand crept towards my belt. When I realized that my hand was reaching for my sword, I jerked it away before I could ruin what little trust had been established between the creatures and myself. I had already vowed to protect them; I wasn't about to fall flat on my promise.

But what caused me to react in such a way when I never had before? Was I that easily threatened, or was there something else causing me to feel this way?

I want to believe that it was the latter, but I fear that it was the former.

My moment of internal conflict was transformed into disbelief when a translucent glow a few shades lighter than its fur coalesced around the purple creature's horn. Before I could ponder the implications of what exactly that did, the answer was thrust upon me when my journal floated in the air right in front of me, bathed in the same aura as the purple one's horn. I froze, simultaneously mesmerized and terrified. 

I'm not sure how long I stared at my journal in disbelief. A few seconds? A minute? Several minutes? Regardless, I eventually mustered enough strength to break my trance and free my limbs from my self-inflicted paralysis. I looked at the creature responsible.

It looked at me back, and pantomimed the motion of reading.

With unsteady and shaking hands—they still are now, albeit for a different reason—I reached for the levitating, open journal. When I made contact, I felt a strange tingling sensation: not unpleasant, but not a cold drink on a hot day, either. It was only after the purple haze disappeared that I realized there was writing that was not my own scrawled on the very last page.

The language was different to mine in every way imaginable, as different as water and lava. Where my words are precisely formed with bold and careful strokes, the creature's is elegant and cursive, with each letter—if they are indeed letters—moulding into one another to create a flowing and almost unending script.

That said, I still couldn't read a single character. I didn't need to, however. My eyes had been opened, and my subconscious must have been feeling awfully smug at that moment. The answer had been in front of me the entire time; I had just been too blinded to see it.

The creatures were as intelligent as I, perhaps more so, if judging how long it took me to realize was any indication of intellect. As I made this connection, a piece of the puzzle slid into place after I asked myself a single question. 

If I suddenly found myself stranded in an unfamiliar land, what would I do first?

The answer was simple: remain where I was, and wait for rescue. That was the rule ingrained into my mind from a young age, and I imagine any mentally equivalent race would teach the same to their young.

That was what the creatures were doing when I first spied them: they were waiting for rescue, or something close to it. I don't believe for a second that the obsidian mysteriously appeared there out of coincidence, either. The fact that the purple one was visibly angry at it cements my theory that the obsidian had something to do with their arrival.

Only my coaxing had made them leave. Had I not done this, I wouldn't have made this incredible discovery, but would they be where they belonged, happily reunited with their families?

No. No time for guilt. What's done is done; there's no sense crying over spilled milk.

...

I lowered the book and met the purple creature's eyes. They were purple as well. I could see the comprehension when it realized that I did, in fact, understand. I saw my own weary eyes reflected back at me.

I understood what I needed to do clearly for the first time in what felt like eons. These were no mere pets of a higher intellect, but thinking, sapient beings, and I would do everything in my power to return them to whence they came.

And I knew, I felt that the solution to my goal... our goal... was held within the Pit.
> Chapter Six: Comprehension
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cube Land

Chapter Six: Comprehension





Twilight saw understanding dawn in the biped's eyes. He stared at the words she had written, then looked at her, then back at the page. She could tell he was not reading the words themselves, but the meaning behind them. Finally, his arms dropped and he looked Twilight in the eye as if seeing her truly for the first time. She felt a huge sense of accomplishment blossom from her chest, and very nearly started jumping in sheer joy.

           The biped blinked a few times, then looked back at the book that he held. He flipped to one of his earlier entries, showed it to Twilight, and motioned with two stubby fingers towards her eyes.

She shook her head sadly. Twilight had tried reading the cubed characters before she wrote her message. They were neat and orderly, but it was still gibberish to her. He closed the book with a sigh.

Though communicating was certainly easier than it had been before, charades and pantomimes could only express so much. How does Princess Celestia deal with foreign dignitaries that don't speak Equestrian? pondered Twilight. There had to be a spell for it, although she couldn't remember any at the moment. She hoped that actions and motions would be enough for the time being.

           Twilight looked up and saw that the biped was still watching her. He looked away after a moment, scratched the left side of his face, then gathered up his writing supplies and disappeared into his bedroom, reappearing a short while later with his tool belt, his sword, and what looked like a miniature shovel and pickaxe attached to both sides. The pickaxe wasn't whitish-grey like his other tools: it was a bluish-green. He went inside the kitchen briefly, returning with a large loaf of bread in hand, munching on it as he headed towards the front door.

           As he was about to touch the buttons on the wall beside the entrance, he paused. He stopped and seemed to think for a moment before looking at Twilight and beckoning her over. Curious, Twilight cantered over to the metal door.

           The biped twisted the handle on the door and pushed. The door didn't budge. He motioned with his arm towards seven unassuming buttons beside the door, slightly higher than Twilight's head. The seventh button was below and apart from the rest. She looked up, wondering what he was trying to show her. The biped proceeded to press the buttons in a specific order: the first one, followed by the third one, and finally the fifth one. After he pressed the fifth button, Twilight heard a whir of machinery and an audible clink.

           The denizen of the cube land reached for the handle once more, twisting it and revealing the door to be unlocked. Twilight's eyes widened with realization. As she pondered how he had made such an intricately locking contraption, he closed the door and pushed the separate seventh button. Another clink was heard, and he twisted the handle again and pushed, showing the door to be locked once more. He pointed at her, then at the buttons, and stepped back. Twilight felt a rush of excitement as she realized his intent.

        He wants me to unlock the door! He's practically giving me the key to his house!

Twilight eagerly stepped forward and, remembering the combination, pushed the three button code with her hoof, eliciting a click from the door once more. Twilight looked up at the biped with a grin on her face. She saw him nod in approval, also smiling.





Day 95, late Night


As I write these words, only one of them is still awake and watching me: the purple one. She is always watchful. Thankfully, she does so now without suspicion. The events of the past day have forged a bond of trust between the six and myself. Fighting side-by-side makes a lasting impression.

I refer to the purple one as 'her' and 'she' as I have since learned that they are all female. The way they relieved themselves made this readily apparent to me, as does, in hindsight, the manner in which they've acted since I found them.

In fact, the purple one is beside me on the couch as I write, possibly trying to compare her own flowing language to my blocky one. Her fur is a royal, emboldening colour, like the sky just after sunset and just before dawn.

...

Dawn. A good name, I think, with multiple meanings. She made me realize their intelligence, 'dawning' it upon me, and she was the first one to awake during dawn the previous morning. I will use it hereon.

Back to the recount.

...

I was pleased that Dawn was able to remember the code after only showing her the combination once. After displaying her understanding by unlocking the door, I conveyed the motions of myself going outside. Dawn nodded quickly and ran back to the living room to her pack mates. At the time, I thought it was strange that she comprehended my intent so readily, as my plan was to return to the mine and unearth the secrets of the Pit by myself. 

They, however, had every intention to follow me.

I didn't realize until I went to close the door behind me, nearly slamming it in their faces. I tried to convey the dangers of not only being outside, but of the mine and the Pit itself, and even tried to block them leaving by standing in the way. Nothing worked: either my hand signals were unable to convey the appropriate message or they had faith that I could protect them. At that moment, I was almost regretful that I had shown Dawn how to operate the locking mechanism, as I now had no way of keeping them inside and out of harm's way. I sighed, expressing my displeasure, but relented, stepping aside to let them file out before locking the door behind them.

The blue one seemed the happiest about being outside again. She immediately took flight after stretching her wings, performing all sorts of aerial acrobatics. Loops, rolls, zig-zags, dive bombing from height only to pull up at the last possible moment before impact... At first, I thought she was simply showing off, but after watching for a little while, it seemed that she didn't care whether myself or the others were watching. She seemed to be zipping around for purely her own pleasure. I cannot relate as I am only comfortable with both feet on solid ground. If I had wings, perhaps I would feel the same inclination.

The white one, however, was looking detestably at the ground and the tiny brown splotches marring her otherwise perfect fur. The area around my house is equal parts grassland and marsh. This does not bother or hinder me; however, most other beings dislike the amount of water present in the ground, including my guests. After trying to wipe some of the dirt off on a block of grass, it did her more harm than good and only served to spread the mess. When she noticed me watching, I made the motion of washing my hands, as there was a small pond on the way to the Mine. She responded with wide eyes and a vigorous nod.

After the blue one had her fill of soaring and was merely hovering a few blocks high, I started on a direct course towards the Mine, fully expecting them to accompany me. After only a few steps, I heard a short, sharp whistle above their normal chattering. I whirled around to see Apple with a hoof still partially in her mouth, surprise evident in her eyes that I reacted as quickly as I did.

Dawn waved me over and pointed over a hill, in the direction of the obsidian. They began walking towards it, beckoning me to follow. I presumed they wanted to show me something important that I had missed yesterday.

We traversed across the muddy ground for approximately eighty blocks when I heard the tell-tale rustling of a Creeper. The six did not hear it, or if they did, they did not associate it with imminent danger. I barked a warning, my sword at the ready in an instant.

The name 'Creeper' is an apt one. They can hide in plain sight by any vegetation, be it tree, shrub, or even a grassy hill due to their green colouring and leaf-like texture. As if that wasn't enough, they are the only monster of the Night that can survive in the daylight: everything else is set ablaze by the purifying warmth of the sun. Perhaps it is for the best, as I do not know what happens when a Creeper burns. It seems quite possible that the sulpher within them would ignite, scarring the land in a devastating manner each and every sunrise. The thought terrifies me.

I scanned the area, my head on a swivel, searching for the green abomination. A startled hiss from behind me, which scared me more than I'd like to admit, caused me to whirl around towards the source, sword extended. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't what I was to bear witness to.

The Creeper was suspended four or five blocks in the air within a purple sphere of light, struggling madly to break free. It might have been comical were it not wailing in primal frustration and using its head as a battering ram, making a sickly thud with every attempt.

I tore my eyes from the disturbing sight to see that Dawn was responsible for trapping it. Her horn was glowing in the same manner when she made my journal float in front of me, her eyes hard and staring at the Creeper. At that moment, I felt quite fortunate that she was on my side.

I have no idea why or how she can accomplish this incredible feat of distant manipulation. The only being that has a similar power would be an Enderman, and I know next to nothing about them. They only appear during the Night or deep underground where I have neglected to place a torch. Though they catch fire in the daylight, the Endermen are not aggressive... as long as I watch where I look.

If I so much as glance at their pure white eyes, their wrath is immediate and they will assault me until their dying breath. I have only enraged two of them: I learned what angers them the second time. Ferocity aside, their shape is vaguely similar to mine, although they are taller, thinner, pitch black in colour, and do not have any digits by which to grasp. Despite not having hands by which to do so, they can 'hover' a block between the stubs of their arms and carry it around. I have seen them carrying dirt, stone, and everything in between, including chunks of my house. After waking up to a hole in my wall one too many times, I was forced to make my house three layers thick.

The Endermen also have the astonishing ability to vanish in a puff of purple particles only to instantly reappear in a nearby location, or somewhere else entirely. The fact that Dawn's extended grasp outlines that target in purple is... curious, to say the least. There may be a connection between them. Only time will tell.

...

With my sword ready to strike, I motioned for Dawn to drop the Creeper, as she couldn't possibly hold it suspended forever. I intended to cut the monster in two, using its mass and the speed of its fall to assist my effort. 

Dawn seemed to struggle with the decision. Her eyes and expression kept changing until she glanced behind at her pack mates, lingering on the yellow one, who was cowering behind Apple. She turned back with a resoluteness she did not have before. I motioned again for Dawn to drop the Creeper, but she shook her head firmly. She took it upon herself to deal with the hissing menace in a way I did not think possible.

She made it fall unconscious.

I have never seen a Creeper sleep. In fact, I have never seen any monster sleep. I didn't know they were even capable of slumbering.

Dawn lowered it to the ground before dissipating the purple sphere. The Creeper looked quite odd lying on its side. I briefly entertained the thought of it struggling to stand back up without the use of arms. It was quite the mental image.

With its eyes closed and its frown slightly less pronounced, it looked almost peaceful.

No, that's the wrong word. It looked... docile. That works better. 

I stared at the motionless Creeper for a short while I drummed my fingers on my sword handle. I glanced at Dawn, then at the yellow one, who was no longer quivering with fright. Sleeping or not, the Creeper was still a threat, and I did my best to remove as many threats as possible. On the other hand, I didn't want them to think of me as a cold-blooded killer. I am stronger, taller, and physically more imposing; I needed to appear less hazardous, not more so, if I wanted to keep what trust I had gained. 

I made my decision. I took one last look at the disdainful Creeper sprawled on the ground, then put my sword back in its spot at my waist and walked away, continuing in the direction that we were originally traveling.

This land did not have mercy until the six brought it with them from whence they came. I am still not sure if sparing it was the correct decision, but I can't take it back now. 

When we arrived at the small clearing containing the rectangular outline of obsidian, Dawn beckoned for me to come close and watch. I did so. She pointed with her hoof towards the four corners of the structure, then held it against the air as if there was something stopping it. She leapt through the hole in the middle and landed like she had fallen from a great height.

I didn't understand what she was getting at, so I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders.

Dawn chirped in her language towards the others, calling them over. She talked animatedly with them for almost a minute, some of them replying in kind, and some simply nodding. 

I cannot deny that I was, and still am, envious of their ability to communicate. I know that envy is a wasted emotion, but still I am subject to it. I have nobody to speak with, to share my feelings and frustrations and ideas. I haven't spoken to a soul since I left my parents to their devices and doomsaying.

Envy aside, I still want to help these poor, lost beings return home and no amount of resentfulness will stop me from doing so. As I look upon their sleeping faces as they are sprawled out on my furniture or curled up in front of the fireplace, I feel a sort of kinship with them. They are people, like me, but the word 'people' does not describe them properly. They are completely different from everything and anything that I have ever known or seen. I must think of a different word for them. Maybe Dawn can help me before she too falls asleep... I will not write any further until I do.

...

Ponies.

This is the word that Dawn has written. It took some time to narrow down the specifics of the word, but I believe it is the one I was looking for. Ponies, ponies. Practice makes perfect. I am a crafter, they are ponies.

It is not as difficult as some of their other words to copy, although it is naturally less cursive when written in my hand.

Back to the recount.

...

The... ponies... all lined up behind one another, in single file fashion. They proceeded to walk single file around the obsidian. The ponies then jumped or flew, depending on if they had wings or not, through the centre of it, one at a time. They feigned surprise and looked around, as if seeing the world around them for the first time. After they had all finished going through the formation, they gathered together in front of the obsidian and sat there, watching me. At that point, I just had to put the puzzle together.

I walked over to the obsidian and attempted to do what the ponies had done. When I was within the confines of the obsidian, however, I felt a hum that reverberated through my entire body, stopping me in my tracks. There was power in the purple stone, this I knew before, but I had never felt anything remotely close to the energy seeping into my bones. Perhaps the configuration, the specific way the blocks were arranged, made the difference.

I'm not sure how long I was standing within the rectangle, but the pink one broke me out of my reverie. She nudged me with a hoof and pointed to where I was standing. She balanced on her hind legs, then made a series of warbling and whooshing sound effects, complete with waving her forelegs in a wave-like fashion. After that, she did what Dawn had done, holding a hoof against the thin air within the obsidian as if something was there. She made some more sounds that I cannot accurately describe, then pranced with a flourish.

It was at that point that I understood. The obsidian was not a marker for their arrival; it was the cause of their arrival. Somehow, someway, the fourteen nigh-indestructible blocks had transported the ponies from their land into mine. Did they build it themselves? How did they originally make it 'work' if it wasn't functioning properly now? I do not know, but I must find out.

I exited the obsidian ring and felt the humming cease. There had to be a way to reactivate the obsidian, to enable to dormant power once more. If it brought the ponies here, I have to assume it's the only way to send them back.

I looked at the six, who looked back at me with hope in their eyes. I motioned for them to follow me. There was only one place that could possibly provide a solution to their problem.

The Pit.
> Chapter Seven: Descent
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cube Land

Chapter Seven: Descent





Day 95, late Night


Thankfully, the ponies followed me this time. I noticed that they frequently look towards Dawn for confirmation on most decisions, which leads me to believe that she is their pack leader, or perhaps the eldest. She has definitely shown a level of desire to understand me and my home far greater than the others.

We stopped at a small pond surrounded by sugarcane and sporting a few lily-pads on the way to the Mine. After I drank from the clear water, the ponies did as well. The white one washed her legs while the pink one bounded from lily-pad to lily-pad, somehow not drenching herself in the process. The blue one actually drenched herself, diving into the pond and swimming for a short while before emerging in a spray of mist. She shook herself like a wolf before taking to the air once more.

Though the Mine was several hundred blocks away from the obsidian, we arrived there in what felt like no time at all, even with the brief water break. The Sun was nearing its zenith, roughly the same position it was in when I descended into the Pit yesterday, giving us plenty of time to delve before Night fell.

... Was it really only yesterday that they appeared? It's hard to believe how much has occurred in a little over a Day and a half. Time does not feel the same as it used to.

Before entering, I looked behind me to make sure that all of the ponies were following me. They were, save for the blue winged pony, who was still hovering in mid-air, wings flapping constantly and rhythmically to keep her adrift. She had been airborne for almost the entirety of the trip, save for when she demonstrated with the others near the obsidian and when she swam. I do not know how she manages the feat; chickens and bats are the only flying creatures I know of, and they cannot do so for extended periods of time. If I didn't see her doing it, I would presume something her size would not be able to fly at all, let alone fly for extended periods. I wonder how much she weighs, or if mass has anything to do with it. Maybe she has the power of the horn that Dawn and the white one possess, but it is concentrated in her wings instead.

I made the motion of descending into the Mine, and received some wary glances. The blue pony shot straight up into the air and continued to ascend until she was just a speck in the sky. Just as I thought she might not come back down, her speck started to grow in size, and I could hear a rumbling like there was a thunderstorm nearby. The rumble grew in force until it was similar to a long and drawn-out Creeper explosion. As she came speeding towards the ground, I noticed a most peculiar phenomenon: she left a streak of colour behind her, the same ones as her mane, which appears to contain them all. It faded a few seconds after.

I am not sure whether it was caused by her or the water dripping from her body, but it was remarkable either way. I know there is a word for the collection of colours... I will ponder it for a while.

...

I thought of the word. Spectrum. The blue one's mane encompasses a spectrum of colours. She left behind a spectrum of colour while racing across the sky. Hmm. I think I have inadvertently thought of a name for the blue pony. I will call her Spectrum. Racer would almost certainly fit as well, but I like the sound of Spectrum better.

After Spectrum landed following her final aerial display, I descended cautiously into the mine. I was glad that I had taken the time to carve out stairs into the stone at the entrance, and I'm sure the ponies were too. They have trouble with one block heights. The stairs were spaced well enough for me to walk or run up and down with ease, but they were still slightly problematic for the ponies, as their legs are not nearly as long as mine. They cannot jump very well either, with the exception of the pink one. They are not built for the dimensions of this world.

The ponies peered down into the Mine from the entrance. After some hesitation, they began to cautiously brave my staircase one at a time.  Dawn came first, followed by the pink one, Apple, and Spectrum. The yellow one descended after she and the white one shared a look and a few words, but the white one did not follow. She attempted to make the first step, but her hoof hovered above the stair for a few seconds before drawing back. Perhaps those two are more closely related than the others: their manes are more intricately styled and they seem to be less world-weary than the others.

Apple stomped her hoof and made a displeased sound, but the white one shook her head and firmly planted her feet. If her glare was anything to go by, she seemed to despise stone and the underground as much as dirt and mud.

It took Dawn, Apple, Spectrum, and the pink one to finally coax her into the Mine. And by coax, I mean they had to forcibly drag her down the stairs to the first flat area, flailing and screeching. The look on their faces seemed to indicate that they were used to this sort of behaviour. I hoped she would not panic when we went deeper, as we were only fifteen blocks down, and we would be going far deeper.

When the white one stopped panicking and was merely shaking in nervousness, I withdrew a torch and my diamond pickaxe, feeling them expand to fit my hands. There were torches placed on the walls throughout every tunnel and cavern that I had ever explored, but the simple comfort of holding one gave me more peace of mind than a dozen placed ones.

I glanced at the ponies, who were discussing something between themselves. I waited until they were finished, then motioned for them to stay close.





Twilight Sparkle was equal parts excited and terrified.

The surface of the cube land contained a plethora of fascinating mysteries, but there were enough similarities to the surface of Equestria that comparisons could be readily made between the two. There were trees, grass, flowers, dirt, water, and the properties of each were generally consistent across worlds. Delving into the underground, however, made her feel like she was entering something entirely separate. The jutting angles of the perfectly square stone felt unnatural and oppressive, and the darkness was almost tangible.

If giant spiders and walking snake-leaf-things roamed the surface, what awaits us where the sun doesn't shine?

Despite the abundance of flickering torches placed at regular intervals, the cave did not feel welcoming in the slightest, and nopony was particularly pleased to be inside of it, especially Rarity. She was a step away from hyperventilating while the biped, on the other hoof, appeared almost comfortable. The carved staircase and smoothed walls indicated that he was quite familiar with this particular cave system, and the equipment he carried showed that he came well prepared.

There were two separate staircases leading to parts unknown, one on either side of the roughly rectangular landing. Twilight watched the biped pull out a torch and his blue-green pick, both expanding to nearly ten times their shrunken size.

Evidently, Twilight still had a lot to learn regarding the laws regarding manipulation of objects, as the biped had the ability to shrink or expand objects seemingly on command, and with great finesse.

"I always wanted to go mining!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "Rock farming was boring, but this is rock mining! I bet there's all sorts of cool stuff just waiting to be found underneath the surface, and Mister Not-A-Pony needs our help to get to it!"

"You think this is a mining expedition?" Twilight asked. She eyed the biped's digging equipment.

"What else could we be doing down here with a pickaxe and shovel? We're definitely not farming. You need a hoe for that!"

"Uh... right." 

"So I guess we're going deeper, huh?" Rainbow Dash chipped in. "I mean, I'm all for exploring and stuff, but why does it have to be underground? Couldn't we explore a mountain or something? It's cramped down here."

"I'm sure there's a good reason for it," Twilight replied. "I don't think the biped would have brought us here without knowing what he's looking for."

"Ah hope you're right, Twilight. Ah don't like the feel of this cave." Applejack motioned towards a shaking Rarity. "And Ah doubt miss prim and proper is happy about it neither. Maybe we should leave her and 'Shy behind. This don't seem like the place for them."

"Oh now you think so?" Rarity jeered. "I took one look and said, 'No, this dirty underground cave looks and feels remarkably similar to the mine where I was captured and held captive', but now that you think we should stay behind, suddenly it's okay? I guess now that I have your permission, I'll go wait outside—"

"Nopony's staying behind," interrupted Fluttershy, of all ponies. "Splitting up is a bad idea. Either we all go, or none of us go."

There was a moment of silence before all eyes turned to Rarity. She was in the middle of taking the first step back up to the surface. She sighed and closed her eyes briefly.

"... Fine," she relented, shaking her hooves to steel herself. "Let's get this over with."

Twilight looked at the biped, who raised a rectangular eyebrow. He motioned for them to follow, and went towards the staircase on the right.

Everypony followed him down single-file; there was not enough room otherwise. As the staircase slowly leveled out into a narrow tunnel, the biped's head was nearly scraping against the ceiling, and it became barely wide enough for them to walk side-by-side. The light was dim enough that Twilight had to look down to make sure she didn't trip and fall, as the steps leading down to a new elevation were becoming infrequent and random. When the biped stopped abruptly and stuck his arms out to the sides, Twilight nearly stabbed him in the leg with her horn.

"Everypony, stop!"

Applejack, who was walking on the left side and was flash-blind from the torch, didn't hear in time and bumped into the biped with enough force to make him stagger forward. As he fell, he swung his pickaxe with a speed disproportionate to his size, embedding it in the centre of a stone block with a single blow and causing cracks to cover the surface. He hung forward precariously, only one foot touching the floor and his iron grasp on the handle the only thing keeping him from falling.

"Sorry! Ah couldn't see!"

"What's going on?" asked somepony behind her. "Where'd the light go?!"

After hanging for only a moment, the biped managed to regain his balance and footing. Twilight watched with amazement as he tore the pick head out of the stone block: the cracks filled themselves in almost instantly, leaving it as smooth as it had been beforehand. There wasn't a mark or a scratch on it to show that it had ever been damaged.

Can everything repair itself like that? Twilight wondered. Will it function the same way in Equestria?

Her thoughts regarding the potential possibilities were filed away when the biped stuck the torch he had been carrying into a stone block. The amount of visible light increased drastically and immediately, enough so for Twilight to see precisely what had made him stop so suddenly. The tunnel stopped at the sheer edge of some sort of fissure. If he didn't stop them, they very easily could've waltzed right off the edge and into the abyss. There was what looked to be a single-block thick shelf that ran to the left of the edge, leading into the darkness. Twilight noticed at least one block-wide gap along it, with no way around. The biped carefully dropped down onto the slightly jutting ledge, glanced down, then pulled out another torch.

Twilight tried to see the bottom of the fissure, and felt queasy when she realized that she couldn't.

Just as Twilight was about to bravely step down and see if the gap was small enough to jump, something whizzed by her head and embedded itself into the stone above her. It had been close enough that she felt a gust of air on the top of her head.

"What the hay was that?!" exclaimed Twilight as she backpedaled until she hit the wall, hooves skittering on the slightly slippery stone. While most of her was panicking, the logical part took note of how quickly the biped reacted. He immediately dropped the torch, tossed the pickaxe from his right hand to his left, pulled out his sword, leaped over the gap, and sprinted into the darkness. The echoes of his steps were quickly drowned out by a series of bone-chilling rattles and the twang of bowstrings. Twilight looked up to see an arrow buried deep into the rock.

"What's happening up there?!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Where'd the big guy go?!"

"Something—Something shot an arrow at us! The biped went in the direction it came from!"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go help him!"

"Wait!" cried Twilight. "It's a really narrow path, and there's at least a one block gap! I don't know if we can get across!"

Rainbow Dash snorted and unfurled her wings. "Nothing's allowed to use us for target practice! Let's see 'em try to hit this!" She flew over them, veering immediately to the left and towards the sound of the struggle.

Applejack jumped down onto the shelf. She narrowed her eyes at the gap in front of her, then turned back to Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity. "You girls stay here. Ah'll bring both of 'em back." Before Twilight could respond, Applejack took several steps backwards to get a running start, then galloped as fast as she could, bounding over the gap and clearing it with a small amount of room to spare.

Twilight's mouth stayed open for a few seconds before she closed it.

"I hope they're going to be okay," said Fluttershy.

"The three of them should be able to handle it... whatever it is," replied Rarity. She sighed. "This is a very good reason as to why I did not want to go down here in the first place."

As the fight echoed around the cave, Twilight had the sneaking suspicion that something else was amiss. She looked at Fluttershy and Rarity for a few moments before realizing that they were missing somepony.

"Where's Pinkie Pie?!"