EquestriaCraft, Part 2

Still taking suggestions for a better name!

>One hour.
>One whole hour!
>The sun has been up this long, which means the day has officially started, yet that 'Anonymous' person isn't here!
>Oh, how it gets on your nerves when p0nies aren't punctual!
>"Chill out Twilight," Rainbow Dash says, being interrupted by a yawn, "He hasn't even been here for a full day yet, give him a break."
>A break!?
>He's a new sentient intelligent creature, you absolutely have to learn everything there is to learn about him!
>And in order to do that, he needs to be here, right now!
"He's late Rainbow!" you finally respond in an annoyed manner.
>"Well, maybe 'first thing in the morning' doesn't mean this early for him? Just calm down-"
"Calm down!? Easy for you to say, you've practically been passed out on my couch all morning!"
>"Well duh, do you realize how early it is? Besides, I wanted to be here when he shows up, there's no way I'm gonna miss this."
>Rainbow yawns again and retains her sprawled-out position on your couch.
>Maybe she's right though.
>Maybe this is too early for him.
>Plus it is his first morning, so you could let him off easy this one time.
>But just this one time!
>You let out a sigh and try to clear your thoughts.
>"Twi, seriously. Slow down a bit."
"Slow down what? I'm calm, okay?"
>"You're still pacing."
>It takes a few moments for those words to sink in.
>She was right. You were anxiously pacing back and forth across your library as if Princess Celestia were about to come by and do an inspection.
>Okay, that's a bit embarrassing...

>But now you've stopped! So you sit on your haunches and allow another sigh escape your mouth.
>"That's more like it!" Rainbow says with a little smile on her face, eyes half-open from still being so sleepy.
>"Wake me up when he gets here will ya?" she asks, rolling over and curling up into a ball.
>Ugh... How can she be so calm?
>This is hard!
>Where is Anonymous!?
>What could he be doing that's more important than your research!?
>He couldn't still be... sleeping, could he?
>That's it, you can't take it anymore!
"No!" You shout as you jump to your hooves, "I'm going to his little home myself and getting his lazy butt out of bed!"
>Rainbow flinches at your shout, sitting up and rolling her eyes.
>"You can't be serious Twilight..."
"Come on, it's not like it's very far. I'm just tired of waiting!"
>"Ugh, fine, I'm coming with you then."
>Rainbow hops off the couch, then yawns again before stretching out her legs and wings.
>But you don't wait up for her, oh no. You're already out the door.
>As you approach the crude little shed Anonymous constructed, you're finally joined by Rainbow Dash.
>The moment you reach his door, you begin knocking.
>And you won't stop until he answers.
>Knock knock.
>Knock knock.
>Rinse and repeat.
>This goes on for over a minute before Rainbow finally decides to intervene.
>"Ya know, maybe he's not here?"
"Where else would he be!?"
>"Wha- I dunno, out punching trees?"
"Rainbow, please. He has to be here!"
>Once again, she just rolls her eyes at you.
"I'm going in!"
>"But-"
>Before she can even really start that sentence, you're working your magic on the door-knob.
>And it's... unlocked.
>Huh. Oh well, lucky you!
"Anonymous!" you call for him as you walk into his tiny wooden box-house.
>Unfortunately, he's nowhere to be seen.
>"See? He's not even here!"
"But..."
>You can't even finish.
>She was right, he wasn't here!
>But where would he be!?

>This isn't good. No no no, not good at all!
>"Whoa, what the-"
>Your ears immediately perk up, Rainbow just found something important!
"What is it!?" you ask enthusiastically.
>"It's a hole."
"A hole?"
>"Yeah, and it looks like it goes pretty far underground."
>Sure enough, semi-hidden behind what looks like a chest, there's a hole in the ground, just large enough for him to walk down.
"Wow, that's not something you see every day."
>"Should we go down there?"
>That's a good question.
>On the one hoof, you need to find Anonymous as soon as possible and get your research going.
>On the other hoof, that looks like it could be dangerous.
>Decisions, decisions...

POV: Anon

>Okay, you've spent long enough down here.
>Plenty of coal to last a while, couple stacks of cobblestone, even a bit of iron.
>Now it's time to head back up.
>You wonder how much longer it will be until day-time.
>No matter, that unicorns studying can wait.
>As you near the bottom of the hole you dug into this cave, you can hear what sounds like knocking.
>Is something knocking on your door?
>Oh no...
>Oh HELL no.
>And they said monsters don't come out at night here?
>Ha! Maybe they just didn't want to frighten you or something.
>Either way, some zombie just signed his own death warrant.
>You make haste up toward your house before the zombie breaks your door down entirely.
>Jump after jump, you scale the hole you dug.
>Unfortunately, the knocking stops, and it sounds as if the door has been forced open.
"Fuck you zombie!" you shout as you round a corner leading to the last few steps up.
>What you see at the top of the hole though isn't a zombie.
>It's two p0nies, specifically the two you had met earlier.
>They gasp and jump back at your sudden appearance.
>The fact you have your stone sword raised in front of you probably didn't help ease their shock.

>You stop once you reach the top, sheathing your sword. Or, you know, attaching it to your waist or something, since you don't have a sheath.
>The two p0nies still look a little scared, so you decide to break the silence as you begin to dump some things into your chest.
"So. You two like walking into other peoples houses huh?"
>"Wha- don't look at me, it was all her!" Rainbow Dash responds.
>"Yeah, it was me." Twilight adds, "You said you'd come see me first thing in the morning!"
"Oh, is it day time already?"
>You take a moment to look out the door, and sure enough, early morning daylight is present.
"Hmm, so it is."
>"How could you not know?" Twilight asks, a hint of frustration in her voice.
"I've been underground all night, no way of knowing what time of day it is." you respond, keeping your focus on dumping items from your bag to the chest.
>"It's cool Anonymous, right Twilight? He didn't know, so cut him some slack."
>"Fine, I guess you're right," Twilight reluctantly agrees, letting out a sigh. "So, shall we get started then?"
"Sure, why not." you answer as you toss what iron you've collected into your furnace.
>And with the addition of some coal, it kicks on and starts doing its thing.
>Turning around, you see Twilight staring past you at the furnace, a confused look on her face as a single eyebrow is lifted.
>She's also hovering a quill and a- stack of paper?
>Yeah. A whole stack of paper. She really doesn't want to miss a single detail does she?
>The 'are you freaking serious' look on your face must be pretty evident, because Rainbow Dash is giggling at you.
"I take it you'd like to know how it works?"
>Twilight just nods her head.
"So this is a furnace. It's meant to smelt ores and cook food, for the most part."
>The quill in her magical grip is flailing at a mile a second, as she continually looks back and forth from the paper to the furnace.
>Is she drawing a sketch of it?

>"So what's in it now? And how do you get it started?"
"It's smelting some iron bars at the moment, and I'm using coal to do that."
>Twilight writes something down and looks back up at you, as if expecting more.
>"Okay, but how do you light it?"
"Light it? All I need to do is put in something to smelt and something to burn, and it starts up."
>The look on her face tells you that's not normal here. Great.
"Look- Don't ask me anything else about the furnace, because I don't know anything else. That's just how it works."
>"Hmm, well then let's move on to something else for now then. How about-" she stops, taking a look around the room, until she spots the crafting table and points a hoof at it, "That!"
"The crafting table? Sure. If the furnace freaks you out though, you might wanna pay attention."
>Before you even finish, she's standing next to it, waiting for you to do something.
>You take a step over to your chest and open it up, grabbing a couple sticks and cobblestone blocks. Might as well start with a simple tool.
>After walking over to the crafting table where Twilight anxiously waits, you place down the sticks and blocks to form a hoe.
>The hoe manifests in the single slot on the side of the table block, so you take it out and hold it up as the sticks and blocks vanish from the surface of the table.
>"Whoa-" Rainbow says to herself as she continues to watch.
>Twilights' jaw just drops, her eyes widening almost to the point of escaping her face.
>"Wha- How-" she attempts to ask, too much in shock to speak coherently.
"Before you even ask, I'm going to have the same response for just about everything I do. You obviously want much more explanation than I can provide."
>Twilight doesn't respond, instead she elects to just stare at the crafting table, looking it over.

"So... I just place items on it in specific places to form a design, or recipe, then the table recognizes it, and spits out a new crafted item. That better for ya?"
>"Do it again!" she shouts as she sets her quill and stack of paper onto the ground.
"Uhh, okay."
>Grabbing a couple more sticks and cobblestone blocks from your chest, you place them on the crafting table to form an axe. You'll need a new one anyway, so why not.
>Twilights' horn is glowing again, but you don't see her holding anything up.
"Uh, hey Twilight?"
>"Just do it!" she demands, noticeably impatient.
>You oblige, snatching up your new stone axe from the side of the table and holding it up in your hand.
>Facing Twilight, she's starting to look frustrated as the glow around her horn subsides.
>"But- that's impossible! There's no way!"
"What are you talking about?"
>"Anonymous, I was using a detect magic spell when you did that. And I didn't detect anything!"
"Okay, so what? I told you there's no magic involved in this."
>"But... But! Aaarrgh!"
>Twilight screams to herself in frustration and drops to the ground, holding her front hooves over her head.
>"That's not physically possible! Just what the heck are you anyway!?" she asks, looking up at you while she remains on the ground.
>Her eyes are pleading, begging you for an answer that she could actually comprehend to save her from this physics-hell she was obviously in.
>Your response is a simple shrug. Unfortunately, you have no such answer.
>She just lowers her gaze to the ground slowly and sighs in defeat.
>"Uh, hey-" Rainbow chimes in to break the silence after a few moments, "So what's with that hole anyway? What's down there?"
"Oh, I found some caves down there, and they're pretty full of ores and all kinds of weird gems I've never seen before."
>"Caves?" Twilight asks, jumping to her hooves, "You dug into the ground and found caves!?"

"Yep. Honestly I wasn't sure if I would, but I lucked out I guess."
>"Do you mind taking us down there?"
"Eh, probably not a good idea Twilight. They can be really dangerous."
>"Dangerous? Why, what's down there?"
"Monsters and lava, mostly."
>"Wait, there's monsters down there!?" Rainbow interrupts.
"Well, there should be. I thought I saw and heard some in the distance, but never encountered any up close. But it's only a matter of time, and I'm prepared for them so I'm not worried."
>"Oh man, you gotta take me down there with you!"
>Rainbow Dash is practically in your face, almost excited at the idea of seeing monsters.
>"Rainbow!" Twilight shouts in protest, "Are you crazy!? Why would you want to go down there if there's monsters?"
"Yeah, gonna have to agree with Twilight there. It's no big deal for me, but I don't want to put anybody else in danger."
>"Oh come on, I can take care of myself! Besides, you're good at dealing with them right?"
"Well sure-"
>"Then you can just protect me!"
>Hmm... Yeah, that probably wouldn't be difficult.
>Besides, like you said, you haven't encountered any monsters yet. Maybe there really just aren't any here?
>It might not be anywhere near as dangerous as you think down in those caves.
>"I can tell you're thinking about it Anonymous, so that's a good enough answer for me!"
>Rainbow's obviously still excited.
>Meh, whatever.
"Alright, fine, you can come down there with me later."
>Rainbow jumps into the air and pumps her hoof in victory.
>Twilight rolls her eyes.
>"I don't understand your fascination with danger, Dash, but if you're going down there, I'm going too."
>"Wha- You sure about that Twi? I'm not sure you'd do so well in the face of real danger!" Rainbow says to Twilight, looking as smug as she can.
>"What? Do you not remember how we got rid of Nightmare Moon? Or Discord? Or-"
>"Okay okay, I get it. Fine then, all three of us will go down!"

>They're both smiling at each other. That Twilight sure does change her mind pretty easily.
>But you suppose it's because she'd be too worried about her friend, so that makes sense.
>"Oh!" Rainbow suddenly shouts, "Speaking of monsters, Anon, you shouted something at us when you were coming up out of that hole, what was it you said again?"
"Right, yeah I thought a zombie was busting my door down."
>"Zombie, yeah! So that's a monster then?"
"One of many, yeah, but probably the most common."
>"What kind of monster is it?"
"They're a lot like me. Well, they actually are human, like me, but they're undead. They love trying to kill anything that lives."
>"Undead?" Twilight chimes in, "You don't mean-"
"Dead and raised as walking corpses? Yeah pretty much. Don't know how or why, so don't ask."
>Twilight shows a look of fear on her face once again.
"Honestly, they're pretty much the least-dangerous of them all."
>"Oh..." Rainbow responds, "Then why did you seems to eager to kill it? Because it was in your house?"
"Well duh. I mean they're not much of a threat to me, but those fuckers love to break doors down. And those who do won't get a normal death-by-sword either, oh no."
>Rainbow cocks her head sideways, curious what you meant, so you decide to enlighten her.
"I'd trap the bastard until I was able to forge a vorpal enchant onto a sword, then take his head off and use it as a lawn ornament."
>Twilight covers her mouth with a hoof. Rainbow looks surprised, but seems to enjoy the thought.
>Well, it's been fun watching the reactions these ponies give to your every-day tasks, but you need to move on.
"Alright, enough about that. Can we move on Twilight?"
>Twilight shakes the thoughts about the zombie from her head and ponders for a moment.
>"Sure, let's head over to my library next, maybe I'll find something relevant in one of my books."
>You nod and open the door.

>Taking a few steps outside, you take a look around, Twilight and Rainbow coming out behind you.
>Before you continue to scare the shit out of Twilight, your next priority needs to be food, because you don't have jack-shit right now, and you're getting pretty hungry.
"Do either of you have any food or anything? I haven't found any wheat or- COWS!"
>"Cows?"
>Before Twilight can even stop and look, you've taken off in full-sprint across the road and into some fields just behind the town.
>Oh yeah, you spotted a few cows.
>Finally, meat!
>"Anon, what are you doing?" Rainbow asks as she flys along above and beside you.
>You decide not to answer, instead drawing your sword and swinging at the first cow you get close enough to.
>The cow jumps back from the attack-
>"MOOOOOO-OOWWWW!!"
>...what
>The cow turns to look at you, and it looks pissed.
>"That hurt ya know!? Now what'd ya'll do that for anyway?"
>It can talk...?
>This cow can fucking TALK!?
>No.
>Just... no...
>You can't kill an intelligent cow!
>"Whoa dude, what are you doing!?" Rainbow shouts as she jumps in front of you and stands up on her hind-hooves, holding her fore-hooves out toward you.
"Rainbow, I can't kill an intelligent cow!"
>"Wha- Why would you want to kill a cow in the first place!?" she asks angrily.
"For meat and leather of course! That stuff is almost a necessity!"
>"Meat and leather!? Anon, I was actually starting to think you were pretty cool, but that's low!"
"What?"
>"Anonymous! Did you just attack-"
"I'm fucking sorry Twilight, I didn't know!"
>"Didn't know what!?"
>Twilight is absolutely furious at what she just witnessed, getting between you and Dash, then proceeding to get right up into your face.
"I didn't know it could talk!"
>"So, what, you kill cows that don't talk where you're from!?"
"Wha- well, yeah, kinda."
>Twilight, Rainbow, and the cow look mortified at your response.

"Uh- wrong answer, I guess... Look, cows provide useful materials where I'm from. They literally serve no other purpose, and they are definitely not intelligent creatures."
>They're all still just glaring at you.
"Ah, fuck. I'll just be going now..." you say quietly as you throw your arms in the air and begin to walk away. "Sorry about that, uh... Cow... Won't happen again."
>What the fuck.
>No, seriously, what the fuck. What are you supposed to do if you can't get meat from cows?
>For all you know, the pigs in this world can talk as well. Hell, they can probably fly too!
>As you're walking in the direction of Twilights' tree, you notice her catch up and begin walking alongside you.
>"Anonymous, I understand this world is a lot different from yours, but please don't go do anything rash like that again. If there's something you want, just ask me first, I'm sure I can save you a lot of trouble."
>Hmm. You're surprised, she actually sounds rather calm now, as if she were actually concerned for your well-being.
>Then again, she's probably more concerned about the cow, and wants to make sure you don't go attacking anything else.
>Eh, whatever. That's definitely something you should take her up on, she obviously knows this world pretty well.
"So. Do you have any food then? I won't last much longer without something."
>"If it means you won't attack any more cows, then yes I can feed you," she responds, still sounding a bit frustrated at you, "But don't rely on it."
"Thanks Twilight. If you just give me a single wheat seed, or potato or even a slice of melon, I can start growing my own, then I won't have to bug anybody for food."
>"Hmm, that shouldn't be a problem."
>Well that's good to hear.
>It's not meat, but food is food.
>"But you know I'm going to have to study how you grow crops then too, right?" she says, giving you a smirk.
>Of course she would say that.