A whole new world (Game)

Sugary was pleased to see the match-torch work as intended. He was also rather surprised to hear what the deal with Zero was and him being here. "... So you're just doing all of this for your brother then? That's rather admirable... Still, do keep sharp. No telling what might happen between now and then, you know?" While his tone was more casual sounding than when he first addressed the changeling, he still had reason to be wary of him, but mostly, he was concerned that, if he was right, then keeping his identity hidden for as long as possible was a must. "And hey, thanks for making a torch! Now we can see in the dark, keep warm, and maybe even cook something..."

His attention then trailed over to Fantasy, who had remained unusually quiet, and gave him the impression that she was holding something back or was anxious about something. "Hey... Fantasy? You feeling alright? Come on, speak up. you're not dizzy again, are you?" He would have preferred to get them to keep moving about, but it seemed time passed somewhat faster here than normal, and wasn't all too keep about staying away from the shelter for too long.

Insight was just considering how he could solve the lighting problem when the crackly sound of a spark and a subsequent fire drew his attention. He turned around to see Zero holding a burning torch. Hm... alright, I need that. Reluctantly leaving his structure for a little while, Insight began to scale the hill upon which the others were.

It took him a little while, since he couldn't exactly claim to be the fittest of ponies by any means, but he eventually reached the top and trotted over to the changeling, asking, "Hey, uh, could you make more of those?" he gestured to the torch. "I need some light for the inside of the hou... well, whatever it eventually becomes."

All around the group, the light seemed to dim and turn orange as the sun began to set. On the far side of the horizon, the sky started to turn dark, and the first small twinkling square stars began to become visible in the sky. Off in the distance, a few spots scattered about the grounds seemed to be starting to glow. That or the light they were making was just now becoming visible with the current lack of light from the setting sun. Off way in the distance where it was considerable darker, distant figures could be seen now. Way too far off to see any real details about them, but figures were there none the less and they seemed to be moving about a bit, but with no real destination at the moment.

"Of course. He was always the...adventurous one. I was the one who sat trying to read a book." Zero fell silent for a moment watching the stars as they made themselves present. "...I figured since he couldn't do this for himself, I'd do it..." He let out a sigh and moved the torch around to help his see a little better in the darkness. When Sugary said what he was doing was admirable, he nearly laughed. "Wish other ponies can say that to me." He said grimly, a sad look falling over his face.

He sighed again and planted the torch down in the dirt. Grabbing the stone sword in his magic. His eyes fell on the figures that were a ways away from them. The figured didn't seem...hostile. But he didn't want to take chances. A little smile formed on his face when Sugary thanked him for make the torch. At least he was being useful...Unlike some mare who seemed to be not talking or acting...or doing anything. He glanced over at Fantasy as Sugary talked to her.

Zero jumped a little and nearly hit Vision with his sword then he had started talking. But that was more or less his fault. He was the one who had been paying more attention in his thoughts and out in front of him and not behind him. He looked at the sword that was mere centimeters away from Vision's neck. He shakily moved his sword away from the unicorn. He put the sword on the ground and shook his head a few times. "...Hmm? Make more of the...torches? Yeah sure." He coughed a little and levitated out a stick then took out a lump of coal with his hoof.

He put the coal on top of the stick and made four more torches. He gave Vision the torches and levitated hi sword back up. Be more aware, Zero. You nearly hit another pony through carelessness. A innocent pony at that. He though to himself, letting out another sigh. How the strain his job gives him...He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. He then turned his gaze back to the figures in the distance.

"Huh?" Fantasy lifted her head slightly at being addressed. "Oh, no. I-I'm fine." She smiled. She looked around her, now that they had a much better view of everything. Forest, desert, ocean, more stuff... huh. She hadn't thought the game would fit such diverse geology into one little... bubble, she guessed. Two things to think. One, she wondered which place held the most useful or valuable (to trade, so they might get useful items they can't find) minerals, and how hard they were to get. She decided to consult the book soon. Two: wow. She... had not expected this kind of quality in a cuby game like this. She hadn't really noticed it earlier, what with the panicking and the moping and a-

...

Right.

She'd really fucked up here. And now, even if by some impossible miracle she did work up the courage to tell such late news, what good would it be now? They were too far from the others for it to be any good unless they sprinted through the forest and just happened to not bump into any creepers or endermen along the way. They could already be in danger, even... because of her.

Fantasy did her best to keep guilt off a mostly-stoic face. Her eyes went back to looking over the biodome, even though it was getting harder to do by the second. This time, she saw the glowing things in the distance- 'a village, maybe? Or some material I know zip about. -the dark figures- that could only be bad -and just the great contrast in the sky in general right now. On one side it was bright yellow and orange. On the other, it was dark, with little square stars starting to shine-

Fantasy's lips puckered. Hm.

Fantasy searched for a moon. Either a blank one or one with a "face". Either was good for her; it was a moon.

Sugary would have noticed Insight approaching with little issue without looking, as such was the purpose of his ears. He was concerned over Zero nearly cutting a group member however, which meant getting a scowl from him. "Zero! Control yourself! We can't help you if you keep getting high strung!" He sighed afterwards, and turned his attention to Fantasy again.

"Okay... Is that it...? You're being awfully quiet, Miss. Communication is very much encouraged right now, you know. You still haven't told me if you see anythi-..." He paused for a moment as he saw something over in the distance he was almost certain wasn't there before. He thought back to the sheep and the chicken, and began to recall old memories of his work and traveling days as a Merc. "I got a bad feeling about this..." He would then speak to the others again to urge them to move. "... We should probably hurry back to that shelter being made. Check and see if maybe there's anything else like that chest around for extra materials in the area."

Griff was well away from the camp by now, but still kept it in sight. He destroyed some dirt blocks around, and when he was sure he had enough, he used some to get on one of the trees and destroyed them afterwards. Seeing as he can somehow stand on leaves, he destroyed the top part of the tree and started placing dirt blocks around the top, slowly making a shelter for the night. "God knows what everything is in this dirt... ugh.. but it'll have to do for now.." he said to himself when he was sure that 2 blocks would be high enough and started building a roof. Once finished, he made a hole in the wall, that would serve as a window in the direction of the camp to keep a sight of it. "There.... now they hopefully won't bother me."

"So, uh, anyway, I..." Insight hesitated as Zero's sword held itself at his neck. He let out a sigh of relief as Zero let the sword descend to the ground instead of finishing the motion and removing his head from his neck. "... Thanks..." As soon as Zero finished crafting the torches, he almost turned back to go to his dirt structure, but hesitated momentarily before he left.

Wait. He looked down at his torches. This... this world is different. And I can't hope to survive without knowing how to do more. I need to play by the rules to win the game of life.

He turned back to the group and hurried to their sides. Addressing all of them, he said, "Hey, uh, sorry to disturb you guys, but, I... I'd like to know how to make new objects. Like... these." He waved the torches around. "Is there a special formula I need to know? Some new way this world works as opposed to the old one?"

After separating from the group, Sunshine had flown around, scouting for a safe spot to make her base. She needed somewhere she could conduct research in relative safety. She found a plateau that seemed big enough for a small base. She just needed materials to make one with. Remembering they were by a forest, Sunshine circle around to the back and started chopping down trees with her axe until it broke in her hooves. “Huh… that happened…” She chopped a pretty good amount of trees and got a lot of wood for herself. Gathering all that wood, she flew back up to the plateau as night fell. “Darkness comes fast. Better hurry up and build this.”

She started making planks out of the wood and placing them down, starting to make a structure. As it got dark, she activated what little internal magic the world gave her to start glowing, giving herself some light to work in. She also kept an eye out for anyone, in case someone saw her and decided to approach.

Dark would descend on everyone quickly as the of the block shaped sun disappeared and in it's place a square and slightly smaller shaped moon rose. Even with the dark though, it was still bright enough to see decently. From the high vantage point, the group on the hill could still see where the color of the grass abruptly shifted, or changed all together.

Everyone however would be able to see more figures beginning to appear, and closer. A majority seemed a darker green than the grass they were standing on, while a few appeared to be white starkly white. One of the white ones seemed to suddenly appear a lot closer to the group on the hill and started moving towards them, but before it got close enough for them to really make out any details, an arrow came flying from the white creature sailing at the group.

From his tree top visage, Griff would see the arrow but not it's shooter, as it was blocked by the terrain the others were standing on. He however would likely be dealing with his own problems as a strange moaning sound around his small dirt shelter.

As for Sunny off on the plateau, she would likely notice these randomly appearing figures, and if she didn't well they had noticed her. The light shining off her illuminated several of the block around her, and then a weird black creature that wandered into the light and continued on unabated by it. The thing wasn't tall, and definitely wasn't pony with it's multiple legs. If anything, it looked like a large black blocky spider with red eyes, and it was moving right at Sunny.

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Yo's, just for clarifications sake, the group on the hill refers to Market, Fantasy, Zero, and Insight and you four have a skeleton archer coming at you. Griff can hear but not see the zombies near him, and Sunny, you've got a spider visiting. Now since this is a mlp cross over, they'll look be blocky versions of these

Zero looked down at his hooves. Sugary's words hit him like a ton of bricks. He push them into a closet in his mind and locked that closet, not wanting to deal with that right now. "I'm sorry, jeez." He muttered quietly to himself before glancing around the area around them. He grabbed his sword in his magic again, levitating it close.

He turned to Vision and gave him a raised eyebrow. "I'm guessing you didn't get to read the book." He said, turning his head towards his bag to grab the book, but stopped when he saw something white in the corner of his eye. He turned towards it and was about to say something when it shot an arrow at them. He fell to the ground so that he wouldn't get hit by the arrow and hoped the others would dodge too.

He hopped to the side, grabbing the sword in his mouth and grabbing his knife out of his bag. He threw the knife at the...um...thing that shot an arrow at them. Oh please hit. Do something to the damn thing! He thought, growling a little bit. He also hoped that whatever this thing was didn't shoot another arrow at him. He really didn't need to deal with an arrow in him.

"...!? Take cover!!" Such would be Sugary's warning to the others along with Zero's response, hoping to get everyone on high alert and to keep focused on what was suddenly happening that he foresaw, but did not quite expect it in the way it was happening. Depending on how accurately close the arrow came, he'd try to block it's movement by using his tough cape as a quick way to catch the bolt if it were to pass near enough of him; Though it was uncertain if it would work as intended here.

Aside from the cape, he'd try to bring out all 4 of his shields from his Inventory as he'd soon realize that he could still not cast any of his regular defensive spells, and hoped to try and carry several shields in place instead with his levitation for protection against further arrows... Though whether or not he was able to carry ore than one at a time was still untested...

((Zen, I don't think I asked before if I was able to 'carry' more than one item with the stronger than average Telekinesis. I suppose this needs some discussion soon.))

Facing the darker side of the sky, Fantasy's discomforted expression would not be known to Sugary, other than a moderate ear-flop, when he pointed out her lack of communication. She was going to turn to him to reassure him she was alright (blatant fucking lie), and she did turn to him, but all the way and for a different reason: something cut him off. "Um, are you alr- Oh." she interrupted herself. "There's the moon." She turned her attention back to Sugary. "Um, are you alright? Why'd you cut off li- EEK!"

Fantasy's only reaction, uselessly, was to jump a a block high as an arrow suddenly zipped by her. She turned to watch the arrow sail into the night sky for all of a second, then whirled around the exact opposite direction and trotted a few steps to get a clear view of what had shot at them. Her knowledge of this game was very limited, and it wasn't much easier to see at night here, so it took her a moment to recognize the creature that was coming after them. Skeleton. Skeleton archer. Pony version, apparently. Of course, she thought. What else?

Though, "skeleton archer" is not what she shouted as her legs scrambled underneath her to get her out of what part of her mind thought was the creature's line of sight, even though more of her brain knew it'd come after her anyway, as she was in proximity; though, others were closer, so she likely wouldn't be first priority. What she did shout was, "Lichen! Er, Lich!" She was pretty sure Lich was the correct term. After all... dafuq was a Lichen?

Griff slightly jumped as he saw an arrow and quickly grabbed another block of dirt. He then heard the strange moaning sounds coming from around and below his dirt shelter. "Oh damn, what are drunks doing in the middle of the forest.... " he said to himself and hesitated with closing the last hole. He looked out of it once more, attempting to see what his nightly neighbors look like, before completely closing it. Griff was now in complete darkness of his shelter, and decided to wait the night out in there. "...Why did I ever agree to this..."

"The book?" Insight cocked his head to one side. "There was a-"

woosh

An arrow suddenly appeared out of nowhere and whizzed past him, just like that. It was so close that he felt the wind on his cheeks. It was scary. he immediately dropped to the ground and rolled sideways, scrambling away from whatever it was that had shot the arrow. His eyes widened as he realised that it was some kind of weird, blocky skeleton. Hefting a bow.

Don't tell me they have necromancers here. He prepared his mental voice for a resounding and hopefully dazing mental shout, until he remembered that a) skeletons didn't have brains, and b) he didn't have the ability to telekinetically communicate anymore.

As quickly as he could, Insight clambered away from the skeleton and towards the rest of the ponies (and changeling), noticing the shields Market was carrying and aiming to get behind those as soon as he could.

Sunshine had started construction of a 10x10 block structure, when a set of glowing red eyes caught her attention from behind. She turned around and saw a giant spider come straight towards her. Instinctively, she flew up, out of its reach. “Wow. It’s kinda cute.” She joked as it jumped up, trying to chew at her giblets. She didn’t want her precious giblets nommed on by a giant spider, so she took her wooden sword and started swinging at it, hitting it while making sure the spider did not get a chance to munch on her. Eventually it went poof. Literally. It toppled over and poofed into smoke. “Huh… Better finish this before another beastie decides to have me for a midnight snack…” She turned around and got back to work on her structure.

Then another thought hit her. “I got an idea…” She left her half-finished construction and turned to the dirt around her. Knowing she could punch it out at a decent pace, she punched out quite a lot of the ground. When she was done, it was like an empty moat surrounded her new base, 3 blocks wide and two blocks deep, though the outermost width was only one, so it was like a downwards staircase to a wall. It was so those darn spiders couldn’t jump up to get her. While she was building it, another spider came by to say hi, and while she dealt with it with the same expert efficiency as the other spider, she did notice it could climb walls as well. “Good to know… I’ll have to think of another defense later. This idea did not work. Oh well, its too much trouble to fix it now. I’ll leave it.” She turned back to her base and continued building, now starting to get tired from all that rapid dirt digging with her hooves.

While the first arrow whizzed by, missing everypony before colliding with a block of leaves and sticking there, while Zero's knife was a little more accurate. The small bladed weapon flew right at the skeleton and when it hit, the whole creature flashed red and bounced slightly into the air before settling back down on the ground as if nothing had happened, right back onto it's hooves even, just like the sheep when it'd been hit. The skeleton pony however didn't start trying to run away, instead it fired a couple more arrows a little more accurately.

The time the monster spent recoiling from Zero's attack though gave Market plenty of time to bring out his shields, only for 2 of them to fall to the ground instantly while the other two floated in front of him, suspended by his telekinesis. One arrow harmlessly hit the shield, bounced off, and then fell head first into the ground where it continued to stick up. The other managed to make it past the makeshift barrier and found a mark in Market's shoulder going right through the cape. Strangely enough, Market then bounced a little and flashed red, just like the other things when they'd been hit. The blocky arrow however didn't really seem to hurt all that much after the initial pang.

The skeleton didn't progress any farther towards the group on the hill, content to simply keep shooting at them for now. Meanwhile, the moaning coming from under the tree Griff was in didn't stop or really let up. Whatever was down there was still down there and so far hadn't shown a single sign of wanting to leave. The dirt however did block a lot of the sound when the little structure was fully enclosed.

Back over on the plateau, the spider's that Sunny had been dealing with were fairly easy to deal with. Their jumping attacks, while coming very close more than a few times, just couldn't seem to reach the airborne mare. When one of them 'poofed' a small white squiggly line however just above the ground, slowly spinning where it was. The moats 2nd block down however might have had to wait though, for here the dirt seemed a little thinner, only going one block down before Sunny would be met with stone blocks. In fact, other than the spot where Sunny was (and the structure was bigger than this spot) the majority of the surrounding blocks were mostly stone on this higher elevated surface.

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Alright, a few things. Market, like I said back in the CD chat, since you don't have all that much special magic to unlock (like Sunny's light based powers, or Griff and Zero's shape shifting ability), you can levitate up to two items at these starting points. Also, your reinforced cape IS functioning, it's MC armor style though so it just lessens the damage you take.

Zero/Star, when/if you kill the skeleton (or anyone really) the knife you threw at it is recoverable. Just figured I'd let you know that for sure. When the skeleton is killed it's also drop a bone and another arrow.

Sunny, the moat thing is my bad for not explaining it earlier but I'd intended for the plateau to mostly be stone. You're building on the most dirt, but a 10x10 structure does extend past the dirt's edge. Also, please don't introduce additional mobs. Those are my pieces on this chess board, and all I can really get to play with.

Anyone/everyone else doesn't seem to be doing anything that really needs to be moderated. For this post, there isn't any 'new' mobs approaching, the moon's just left the horizon line at this point and the stars are out in full. Also, just in case any wander back to the dirt structure Vision/Ician built, there's a zombie on the roof just kind of wandering around up there.

((Random encounter!))

"Ooowwuh...!?" The arrow that hit Sugary certainly hurt, and he certainly felt it. But he had just been subjected to various surprises such as the cape not working as intended, the arrow clearly sticking on his shoulder yet not hurting as expected nor restricting his movements afterwards, and the forced hop and blink of his body was all around unpleasant in its absurdity. The fact that he could not properly grab onto more than two objects with his magic at a time was also jarring. All in all, things were fundamentally different than what he was used to to the point that he even looked around for numbers suddenly showing the damage he took over his head to see if that had happened too, but that was a different sort of compelling curiosity on his part.

Nonetheless, the battle was not yet over, and they were likely still in danger. Making a quick assessment of his surroundings, he kick-slid one oval shield towards Fine, the other oval shield towards Insight, and moved the ones he had in his magical grasp near him and Zero as he got up and took a pre-charge stance. "Fantasy! Insert-Er... Insight! Grab those shields and try to stay close to us! Zero, let's bring the fight to it and then return to camp! Grab that shield now if you want it! Everyone, charge!" He hoped the others would rally enough under his quick lead instead of going their separate ways as he finally galloped at full speed towards the skeleton. He would keep fully alert for any further shots and possibly other skeletons showing up and try to block, dodge, and/or counter to the best of his ability. Should he get close enough uninterrupted to the skeleton that attacked them first, he'd bring out an Iron Mace from his inventory with his left forearm and start smashing away at the skeleton relentlessly till it fell apart, or saw signs that it would counter him instead during the strikes and hold his offensive till another opening became available to finish the job, or saw that Zero or any of the others were to attack at a more opportune time than he. He was a Mercenary with experience, and he was going to act like it.

((Heh... Not much to unlock, Zen? Sugary has been reduced in overall ability and combat effectiveness by at least 70%. He's a great Warrior, and an even better Spellcaster. "Do not take me for some Conjurer of cheap tricks!" o3o ))

Insight grabbed the shield out of pure instinct and clutched it close to him, cowering in fear. Then he was suddenly struck with a sense of purpose as the adrenaline pumping through his body decided to finally do what it was supposed to and prepare him for conflict.

Okay, let's see... He shook his head and thought. I think Sugary has that skeleton covered... but there's no telling what other dangers there are lurking around here. He levitated the shield in the air and faced it away from the skeleton, guarding the others' backs. He closed his eyes but extended his magic sight as far as they would go, probing through the space and the ground to detect any other dangers within a hundred metre radius. Or at least that was his old range; who knew what this whole new world has done to him.

Insight's attempt at getting a readout for the area seemed a little off, measuring a 100 'blocks' but that wasn't the truly jarring effect. Starting off, he couldn't seem to pierce the ground with this sight, and then on the surface, a new figure just appeared next to a tree a short ways off to the east. This new figure was tall, thin, and strangely enough seemed to be staring back at Insight.

Market's charge would encounter a few more arrows, most being blocked by the shield while others simply missing. One managed to make it through though, burying itself in Market's forehead and triggering the same response as the first time he'd been shot. Even stranger was the fact that this didn't seem to stop the charge against the skeleton and it was soon beaten down under the relentless blows from Market's mace. The skeleton 'poofed' in the same manner as the sheep and left behind was what looked like a bone and an arrow. All of this however didn't go unnoticed as other things started to enclose on the group. More of the skeletal archers and a few of the sickly green looking ponies started moving towards them.

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Well, that was too long a break, and I'm more than ready to continue this. Those that still wish to play, please reply with something after this post.

Sugary was throroughly careful about not getting hit by any more arrows, so it came as a jarring surprise when one of the arrows somehow went through the shield as if it wasn't even there like some kind of glitch in reality. Having an arrow to accompany his horn was hardly enjoyable, but he was already more than focused enough on the fight to see it through given that, once again, his movements had not been hindered significantly.

"Gah... How the heck did I not block that!? This place is ridiculous..." He then promptly picked up the items dropped by the monster as if it were second nature, and began to assess what else was happening. "Hey! Stop looking so stunned, and move to shelter! There's more coming!" was all he had to say to those near him. It seemed he would have to pick up the brunt of the slack as far as fighting went, but he was far more limited in what he could do by himself and was really depending on the others to pull through as he tried to rally them a second time.

Really, the most of what Fantasy was doing was blocking other skeletons with her shield and keeping close to Sugary. She felt adrenaline, fear, excitement, all that jazz. But really, her mind was rather blank right now. At the moment, she was just following orders. Sugary seemed to know what he was doing-

Fantasy yelped for Sugary; she'd forgotten his name already. He now had an arrow in his shoulder and in his head. She'd expected at least one hit, and was glad for the logic in this game, in the way that a headshot was not a fatal wound.

Anyway, he seemed to know what he was doing, and she knew nothing about fight, so she was just awaiting orders. Though, she assumed the "get to shelter" thing didn't apply to her, since she was part of the defense. And she didn't want to leave him alone with the attackers. She continued aiding Sugary.

Ah! Insight recoiled as his mental probe refused to penetrate the ground like it usually could. Damnit. Now...

He turned his head up, though not looking directly at the creature. He didn't find any particular need to, since his magical sight afforded him all the details he needed. It took him only a second to determine that, well-meaning or not, it was probably not good to hang around anything foreign in this new world any longer than he had to. "Sugary, there's another one!" He shouted. "It looks different from the others." It then occurred to him, slowly, that Sugary had been injured, and he quickly added, "Not to rush you or anything, though."

In the meantime, he himself retreated slowly, holding the shield up against his side to take on whatever dangers might come.

Zero had grabbed the shield Sugary gave to him in his magic while he held his sword in his mouth. He would have fought the skeleton as well, but Sugary looked like he can handle it so Zero just kept and eye out around them. "Ya can say that again, Sugary." He used the shield he had in his magic the push one of the green ponies that got a tad to close to them for his liking. He swung at the pony two times before backing away and eyeing even more around them.

"Hmm...This is gonna be a tough one..." He muttered through his sword before swinging two more times at the green pony he started fighting before turning towards Fantasy and Insight. "You two get to the shelter now. Me and Sugary'll get each other's backs...Maybe." He said, raising an eyebrow at the unicorn stallion in question. He then turned back to the green ponies and skeletons, raising the shield.

The assault was slow luckily as the green ponies and the skeletons continued closing in. The skeletons however only seemed to get so close as they had before, and then started shooting at the group while more of the green ponies moved in to attack normally. As Zero batted away one of the green ponies, a second skeleton archer fired a couple arrows at him, at least one of which connecting and triggering the same response as damage from everything else in this new world.

Meanwhile, Sugary and Fantasy were in their own fight against 3 of the green ponies that continued to close in under the hail of blows they suffered. Their strikes would bat one of the green ponies back slightly, but they just kept charging forward until they went 'poof'.

Insight would be dealing with his own concerns as well, as he gradually moved back towards the dirt shelter, the strange figure in his 'sight' suddenly disappeared only to reappear on the other side of him and began moving slowly towards the shelter as well. As the shelter came into view as well, Insight could 'see' another of the sickly looking green ponies were aimlessly walking around on the roof of it. It didn't seem to have noticed any of them yet.