EquestriaCraft, Part 3

"Hmm, neat," you comment as you step inside Twilights' tree house.
>"Yeah, it is nice when there's no cube-shaped holes in the walls," Twilight responds, giggling at her own sarcasm.
"Heh, yeah, sorry. You're right though, it's a lot nicer than I'd imagined. Trees don't get anywhere near this big where I come from, so it's not something I'm used to seeing."
>"Really?" Twilight says as she steps into her kitchen, "There's much bigger trees than this around here, but I'm glad you like it. It is impressive, huh?"
"Just wait, give me some time and I'll have a house to impress you and everyone else." you return her smug comment.
>Twilight has been shuffling around in a pantry for the past few moments, but pauses as your comment.
>"So you want to impress me huh?" she asks playfully as she resumes whatever it is she's doing.
"Uh- well, no, but I do enjoy building ridiculous houses, and if I can build something here the same way that I can in my world, you're bound to be impressed," you respond, a strong air of confidence about you.
>"Well, in that case, I look forward to seeing it."
>As she finishes, Twilight exits her pantry, levitating a few potatoes in the air in front of her with her magic.
>"You said you like potatoes right? Will these do?"
>Twilight walks toward you and hovers three potatoes in front of you.
>They look normal enough to you.
"Hmm, yeah these should do fine. Thanks!"
>Holding out your hands, Twilight releases her magical grip on the potatoes, allowing them to fall into your hands.
>Placing them in your bag, Twilight gives you a curious look.
>"Aren't you going to eat them?"
"Of course, but I need to bake them first. Well, two of them anyway. The third is getting planted so I can grow more."
>"Oh. But won't that take a long time to grow?"
"Not really. If I go and plant it now, it should be ready to harvest by tomorrow."
>"What!?" Twilight asks with a raised voice.

"You know, I don't think there's anything I could ever do that wouldn't surprise you Twilight," you say, shaking your head and smiling at her.
>"But- one day? That's..." Twilight pauses, before sighing in defeat.
>As her horn begins to glow, her journal floats over to her, along with a quill.
>She takes down a few notes and places the journal back on a table.
"Well Twilight, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go back and bake these things so I can eat them before I die of starvation. Also gotta get one planted too, and that's gonna take some work."
>"Oh- sure, go ahead. I'll catch up in a couple minutes." Twilight responds as she turns away and begins walking somewhere into her house.
>Not wasting any time, you open her front door and take a step outside.
>When you closed the door behind you and turned around to leave, you didn't expect Rainbow Dash to suddenly be right up in your face.
>"There you are!"
"Whoa! Hey, you knew where we were going, what's the matter?"
>"I had to apologize to the cow for you ya know, since you up and bailed on us!"
"Hey I said I was sorry!"
>"Yeah well she wasn't satisfied!"
>You throw your arms into the air and look away for a moment, before dropping them and looking back up at her and letting out a sigh.
"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash," you say, giving her your most sincere apology.
>She raises an eyebrow and stares at your for a moment before snickering at how serious you were.
>"It's cool Anonymous, it wasn't that bad," she says as her laughing calms down, "Just make sure you /never/ do that again!" she demands, with emphasis on the 'never' part.
"Heh, no worries Rainbow, I know better than to blindly attack anything from this world from now on."
>"Good. So uhh, what's going on anyway? Where ya headin'?"
>Before you answer, you begin walking toward your little home.
"Heading home, Twilight gave me a few potatoes to cook up and eat."
>"Potatoes huh? How are ya gonna cook them anyway?"

"Why don't you come and see for yourself?"
>Rainbow shrugs and begins to follow you.
>As you approach your house, Twilight Sparkle comes trotting up beside you.
>She has a small saddlebag on her, and you can spot a quill sticking out.
"I assume you'll be taking notes on everything I do?" you ask without looking at her.
>"Mmhmm." she happily hums to you.
>Upon entering your house, the first thing you do is grab a few wood planks from your chest.
>After all, you don't have much coal yet, so there's no point in wasting a piece to smelt just two items.
>You glance over at Twilight; she's already got her journal and quill out.
>Seeing that she was ready, you place the planks and two potatoes into the furnace, and it starts to do its thing.
>Twilight seems surprised at first, then proceeds to start scribbling away.
>Moments later, the furnace stops, and you retrieve your two baked potatoes.
>"Let me see!" Twilight asks curiously.
>You oblige, holding the potatoes up where she can see.
>She begins to thoroughly examine them, eyeing every inch and taking in their new scent.
>"Wow, they look and smell great. How did you do that so fast?"
"Twilight, you already know my answer to that."
>She sighs in response before saying "Of course..."
>Without further hesitation, you begin to devour both of the baked potatoes.
>It only takes a few seconds, and they're gone. And now you don't have to worry about going hungry for a while!
>Alright, time to get this last one planted so you can start growing some more.
>Lifting up the lid to your chest, you pull out the hoe you had crafted earlier, along with three iron bars.
>As the chest closes, you approach the crafting table and lay the three iron bars on it in order to craft a bucket.
>Thankfully, Twilight is watching your every move, so hopefully there won't be another thousand questions.
>"A bucket? What's that for?"
>Well, at least it wasn't a 'how did you do that' question.

"You'll see. There's a river nearby right?"
>"Yeah. I take it you need some water?"
"You got it. Care to show me where it's at?"
>"Follow me Anon," Rainbow says as she exits through your door.
>Twilight follows behind you, though she's paying more attention to the notes she's jotting down.
>You don't get very far before she catches up however.
>Rainbow led you along the edge of the forest until you reached the river.
>Pulling out your bucket, you scoop up a perfect cube of water, filling the bucket.
>Twilights eyes widen at the sight, and she immediately begins going to town with her quill.
>"Dude, that's crazy," Rainbow comments, unable to comprehend what she's seeing.
>As you stand up from the river, water swiftly re-fills the empty space you just made in it, and it's back to normal.
>Hmm. All of this water is flowing, to be honest you didn't expect to be able to pick up any at all. But you did, and it's back to normal as if you never touched it at all.
>This is good. Not like getting water was ever a problem anyway, but it's still nice.
>With the bucket of water now in your bag, you make your way back to your home.
>Any spot around your little house will work for now, but you just realized you don't have a shovel on you.
>So, of course, you have to head inside to grab it from your chest.
>Back outside, you dig out four cubes of a dirt in a 2x2 area.
>Twilight is hard at work, writing on her scrolls, looking back and forth between that and the hole you made.
>Not caring if she can keep up or not, you retrieve your water bucket and dump it in a corner of the hole.
>Much like your own world, it creates a water source and begins endlessly flowing into the other spaces.
>Twilight stops in her tracks when she notices this.
>But you don't care. Using your hoe, you till a piece of a dirt next to the hole and plant your single potato.
>"Wh- what the?"

"I'll be right back," you say to Twilight as she's still staring at the water, "Have fun figuring that out."
>While you leave her and Rainbow Dash to remain dumbfounded, you go back to the river and fill your bucket once again.
>When you get back, their expressions haven't really changed, though Twilight has resumed her scribbling.
"Ready for this?" you ask her, hoping that she doesn't need pages worth of notes just for this.
>After a few seconds, she nods her head and slowly turns her attention to you.
>Dumping the bucket of water into the opposite side of the hole, the entire thing fills up evenly and the water becomes still.
"There, infinite water. Now I won't have to go back to the river."
>"Wait, what!?" Twilight asks, shocked at what you just said.
"I can't explain it to you, only demonstrate."
>As you say that, you scoop up a corner of the holes' water with your bucket, and it quickly fills back up.
>Twilight looks back and forth between the bucket of water in your hands and the water hole in the ground.
>"So... you can just infinitely draw water from this hole now? And it will never run out?"
"Exactly."
>Predictably, Twilight immediately begins writing once again.
>You can't help but notice her eye twitch during this, but eventually she finishes.
>"So... what next?" she asks in a curious, yet happy tone as she smiles at you.
"Uhh-"
>"Ooh! Actually, can you chop some trees again? I definitely need some notes on that!"
"Hmm, sure, why not. I could always use some more wood."
>You shrug at Twilight, who's seemingly anxious to move on, as you leave your house and proceed toward the nearby forest.
>Ax-in-hand, you begin chopping at the center of the tree.
>"Anonymous, could you just cut the bottom half and leave the rest? I need to study this."

>You shrug again in response, and when you've taken out the lower parts of the tree that are easily within reach, you leave the rest floating in the air and move on to another tree, doing the same thing.
>Twilight writes away as you do this, and you notice her eye twitch again.
>After you've gone through the lower half of about four trees, you notice Twilight sitting on her haunches, apparently drawing a sketch that she's super-focused on.
>You've got enough wood to last for a while, so you place your ax back in your bag and wait for Twilight to finish.
>Minutes pass by, and she's still writing things.
>Rainbow Dash is hovering over her, watching what Twilight is doing, though she doesn't seem very interested in it.
"Almost done Twilight?"
>"Hm? Oh, no, I'm going to need some time for this." she responds without turning her attention away from her work.
>Twilight stands up as her horn begins to glow, placing an identical glowing aura around one of the trees you left floating.
"Well, in that case, I'm gonna head back home and into the cave I found. Don't come looking for me down there, it could be dangerous for you."
>"Whoa, hang on," Rainbow speaks up, taking her attention from Twilight to you. "If it's dangerous, let me come with you!"
"No, it's not dangerous for me, I do it all the time. But for- ponies like you, it could be."
>"What do you mean, 'ponies like me?' I aint afraid of nothin', so what's the big deal anyway? Are there monsters down there or something?"
"Ye- Well, actually, no. There should be, but I haven't seen any yet. Maybe your world really just doesn't have any. Still, we shouldn't take the chance."
>"Pfft, forget that. I wanna see this cave you found. Besides, I'm tougher than I look, I can handle myself no problem!"
>She sure is confident, and determined.
"Ugh, fine, you can tag along. Just be careful."
>Rainbow Dash throws a hoof into the air in excitement.

"We'll see ya later Twilight," you wave to her as you and your new Pegasus companion begin to walk away.
>"Hang on," she says back to you. "If Rainbow Dash is going with you, then so am I!"
"Huh? What about the trees?" you ask sarcastically.
>"I have enough information for now, I can come back later. Besides, there's no way I'm letting Rainbow Dash get to see that cave before I do!"
>Rainbow chuckles at the comment- looks like Twilight is finally starting to get into this.
>Back in your home, you dump the wood, ax and hoe into your chest, and begin your trek down into the cave.
>The hole you dug down is blocky like usual, but the cave is very rounded and defined, much like the rest of this world.
>Thankfully, the ores are still fairly easy to spot.
>"So, what do you come into these caves for anyway?" Rainbow asks as you reach the bottom of your block-steps and into the cave.
"Coal and various ores, mostly."
>"Ores?" Twilight asks, "Like what?"
"Iron and gold, though gold isn't very useful. Also diamonds and emeralds, which are very useful."
>"Diamonds and emeralds?" Rainbow restates, looking to Twilight with a raised eyebrow.
>"Anonymous, how easily can you find these things?"
"I have some good methods of finding them, it won't take too long for me to come up with a decent haul."
>"So you can't, like- see them or anything like that?" Rainbow asks.
"See them? Like, through the walls and rock? No, why would I?"
>No doubt that was an odd question, but it seems like they know something you don't.
>As the conversation carries on, you traverse further into the cave, to where you stopped placing torches and turned back last time.
>"Well, our friend Rarity knows this very convenient spell that lets her see nearby gems in the ground."
>Wait- WHAT!? A spell that could let her see gems through the rock... Now that would come in handy!
"Whoa, what? You're kidding right!?"

>"Not at all. Maybe some time we could get her to come down here with you and use it, no doubt there's gems all over these caves."
>"Ha!" Rainbow laughs, "Rarity? In a place like this? Fat chance!"
>"Heh," Twilight giggles, "Yeah I guess you're right about that."
>Torches-in-hand, you begin traveling through the caves some more, placing them as you go to keep the place well lit.
>Not far beyond where you stopped before, you spot a sizable coal deposit in the wall.
>You pull the iron pick from your bag and begin mining the coal.
>It looks quite a bit different when it's in ore-form here in these caves, but it breaks and drops just like it did back in your world, so that makes things simple and easy.
>"What the!?" Twilight freaks out for a moment before producing her quill and scrolls again.
>"Whoa, how are you so fast!?" Rainbow asks.
"Just how things are, don't ask."
>It really was the best response you could give them, even if it did suck.
>When the coal is all mined out, you continue along through the cave.
>Rainbow follows and Twilight is still writing, but she slowly begins to follow along as well.
>"Hey Anon, is there anything I can help with?" Rainbow asks.
"Hmm..."
>In your hand is a stack of torches. Maybe she could place them along the caves as you mine?
"Here, take some of these torches. Set them around the cave to keep it lit up while I mine out the coal and iron."
>"Ooh, can I have some too?" Twilight asks excitedly.
>You split the stack of torches in half, keeping one half for yourself, and splitting the other half again to give to the girls.
>It was perfect timing too, as the cave opens up into a large opening, with multiple split-paths.
>You take a moment to listen for anything, and to look around the opening and down some of the other paths, but you don't notice anything.
>No movements or noises of any monsters. Maybe this place is safe?

>With a nod, you signal the ponies to begin placing torches around the cave opening.
"Fill this place with light, I think I see some iron."
>Sure enough, on the ground in a corner of the room there was an iron deposit.
>As you're mining it and the two ponies are walking around the room placing torches, you hear something.
>Something you hated hearing, and hoped to never hear after coming to this world.
>"Ssssssssssss!!!"