Number Magic

There was nothing. Nothing but a cloud of stardust and gas. The dust seemed to be glowing, shimmering faintly in the darkness.

An unknown force pulled these particles to the very center of the cloud, slowly getting bigger and brighter. The silence was broken when light filled the entire void, and a colorful sphere appeared where the particles had been gathering—the sphere was a beautiful gradient of orange, pink, and yellow. The light around it separated into a million pieces and a star was born out of each.

A muted boom echoed when the light finally dissipated, and the sphere began glowing softly. He gained consciousness, and the first words that came to his mind were these.

What if I created something amazing?

He didn't know where these words came from. He didn't know who he was, or what he was. But he knew he had a purpose—to imagine and create.
He drifted around, searching for a perfect spot to begin. Once he found one, he wondered aloud. "What if a planet was made here?"

The exact spot he was thinking about briefly glimmered and shone, and when it became dark again.. there it was. A planet. Complete with water, clouds, land, plants, even small critters, and everything else a planet might need. The sphere gasped quietly at his own power, admiring the entire planet that appeared just how he pictured it.

He descended a little bit to the planet's atmosphere, thinking about what sort of creatures would live there. A creature that would have a fixed identity, be present in all ways, with an unquenchable curiosity but at the same time have a simple and happy life.

Then he had an idea.
He wanted numbers to come to life and live here.

He pictured such a creature in his mind, and said aloud "What if.. she lived here?" as he didn't know what to call her. A single red block appeared, but instead of being on the ground, she was in the sky. The sphere flew higher into space, watching her fall. She bounced a few times before landing and gaining an eye, a mouth, and stubby arms and legs, but she didn't know her own name. She didn't even know where she was, how to talk, how to walk, or do.. anything, really.

"Hm.. nearly forgot." Said the sphere. "What if she had a name?"

A line—yes, a line— appeared and 'hopped' toward the red block, landing on its head. The block felt a strange connection to the line for a second, as if she regained memories of things she had never experienced before. Slowly, she stood up. "Oh. Where am I? Who am I?" She asked with a high, airy feminine voice. Looking up at the sky, she spotted a bird. Out of newfound instinct, she pointed up and counted it. "One, one bird." She glowed, and felt a certain happiness in counting. For the next few minutes, that's what she did. She wandered around and counted the things she saw.

Gradually, the block realized that she had an identity, a name by which to call herself. She stopped and gasped, then said loudly to nobody, "I.. Am.. One!" She giggled and proceeded in counting more singular things, more confident and happy than before.

The sphere, still high in the sky, watched One from afar contentedly wherever she went. After a while, she came across a lake with several ducks in it. She stopped to count them, and pointed at the first one. "One, err.. one.." The sphere realized that his creation wouldn't go very far if there was just a single one of them. An idea came into his mind—a mirror, which would be able to make more of the blocks.
"What if magical mirrors could make more of the blocks?" He asked himself, picturing a mirror and some sort of power source. Immediately, a white cube with one of its faces identical to that of the red block's, the power source of the soon-to-be-made mirror, emerged out of nowhere and flew away to nobody-knows-where. A mirror appeared in a nearby forest, made of gold and with a cube floating in a frame above it. A bright beam of light flowed to it from the direction of the power source then stopped, as the cube inside the mirror's gold frame began spinning slowly.

It was ready. All that had to be done was for One to find it.

The sphere watched her again, as she shrugged and counted the single tree next to the lake rather than the currently-uncountable ducks swimming in it. The sphere smiled inside, and reflected on what he had done so far. Creating things made him happy, like how counting made the little block, known as One, happy. Maybe he should have a name..

He thought, and chuckled. I have to say 'what if' to make anything happen. Might as well.. call myself a 'What-Iffer'.

The planet, the little block, and the mirror, had all come from him. The What-Iffer, a sphere born out of the stars with the power and purpose to create something amazing, had indeed started something amazing.