//------------------------------//
// Stand Your Ground 
// Story: The Everycraftery 
// by Liquid Truth 
//------------------------------//

In the Planet of Terra, in The Land of The Living Gods, on the crest of Ever Mountain, in the balcony of a ruined and overgrown temple overlooking a cliff, sat Twilight Sparkle, enjoying the blissful serenity of the morning by sketching the mesmerizing landscape before her.

With her trusty journal by her hoof and a borrowed pencil from Einstein by her mouth, she relished in the fact that she could, indeed, draw with her mouth. Not as beautiful as her hornwriting, but the result was satisfying enough to make her other half jealous.

She was sure that her other half couldn't write with her mouth. She took a mental note to rub it in her face once they got back.

"Anaphalis javanica, usually called 'The Everlasting Flower' by humans. It is considered extinct in most Equus universes."

Twilight turned around, finding Sweetie Belle, wearing a green scarf in addition to her usual cap, staring in awe at the flower growing from between the broken tiles Sunset just described. Sunset herself was wearing a matching yellow scarf in addition to her usual attire, sans the sword.

"It's beautiful."

"It is, Sweetie. It is."

"I wonder how it tastes like."

"Just try it. It's not poisonous."

Hesitantly, Sweetie bit a bunch of the flowers. She hummed in bliss as she munched, and at one point got goosebumps. Whether it's from the cold or the taste, Twilight couldn't tell. "Ooh, it's delicious."

"I bet it is. Congratulations, by the way. You're now ageless."

Sweetie stared at Sunset in shock, her munching completely forgotten.

Sunset laughed. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! It's just a myth."

At the playful banter that came afterward, Twilight smiled. Sunset had gotten herself a very endearing friend, it seemed, and she felt all warm and fuzzy inside—not for the cold nor her scarf, but for knowing it was her doing that got them together.

If there's one thing she's not ashamed to be cheesy about, it's Friendship.

Also, it's scientifically proven that Friendship and vacations reduce stress levels, which in turn increases an employee's productivity in the long run.

As she lost herself in thought, she also lost her grip on the pencil, and it clattered on the floor of the ancient temple.

A deep rumble came from beneath her, and she took flight in anticipation. She managed to take her journal along, but Einstein's pencil was left behind.

As the rumble stopped, she looked around and found nothing out of place. Sunset had stood protectively in front of Sweetie, while the aforementioned filly had taken hold of a broom, looking around in fear.

Suddenly, from where Twilight once sat, tendrils of light shot upward, coalescing into a single humanoid form.

As the light receded from the form, a deep, resounding ethereal voice came from it. "The God of Floors announces his presence."

Twilight blinked several times and stared at the Floor god. He took the form of a dwarf, it seemed, complete with the long white beard, a full set of bulging battle armor, and an enormous war hammer taller than he was.

As Twilight tried to remember where she put this universe's list of gods, she saw the Floor god kneeled, took the pencil, and eyed it curiously.

The Floor god turned the wood-coated shaft of graphite in his hand with great wonder and amazement. Finding the word Faber-Castell etched in one of its six sides, the god looked up toward Twilight.

As their gazes met, Twilight felt the warmth of Terra, its fatherly love embracing her and telling her with genuine loyalty that He would always be there for her when she fell. Both metaphorically and literally.

The god opened his mouth, and a perfectly normal voice of an old dwarf came, addressing Twilight. "Faber-Castell, I take?"

Twilight shook her head and landed in front of him, bowing with a grace worthy of a princess. "Twilight Sparkle, Everycrafter of The Everycraftery. We came from another world, and were not expecting your arrival."

As she finished her sentence, Sunset and Sweetie had joined in her sides. As they were about to kneel, however, the god chuckled and held a hand. "At ease, mortals." A glance at Sunset, and, "And immortals. No need to bow for Parke, The Floor god."

The three rose, and Parke took another look of awe at the writing utensil. "Tell me, Everycrafter" Parke began, "Should ye be the one to craft this masterwork?"

Twilight shook her head. "It was crafted by a friend of my friend, Kaspar Faber. The pencil wasn't even mine, it was borrowed."

"Can ye make one, by chance?"

Twilight nodded.

Parke smiled and rose the pencil high. As he did, he said with his previous ethereal voice, "The God of Floors demands a Pencil from Twilight Sparkle, Everycrafter of The Everycraftery."







Commision Sheet

Commissioner: Parke, Floor god
Address: Anywhere there is flooring, Planet of Terra
Preferred Delivery System: Direct delivery
Contact: -
Item Description: Pencil
Notes: -




Parke raised an eyebrow as Sunset tucked the quill away and put the commission sheet in the waiting stack—which, at that point, was empty save for Parke's commission. "This be a joke?" he asked. "Surely, ye can't be asking me for Gelds."

Sunset shook her head and calmly answered, "Sorry, Floor god, but the price stays the same for every being, be it a god, an eldritch abomination, or a pumpkin. The pencil costs twenty Gelds. Also, Twilight has started on making it, so you can't cancel it."

Parke scowled and pointed his war hammer at the counter. "I am The God of Floors, ye whelp! I give ye ground to stand, to play, to build masterpieces upon! Ye will not ask for my payment!"

Sunset Shimmer stretched her hands outward, and The Sword of Power materialized in her palm. "And I am a retired God-fucking-Empress of mankind, ponies, griffons, and seventy-nine other intelligent lifeforms. You're not telling me what to do, Shorty, and you will pay if you want your commission done."

Parke's face contorted into a rage. "Fine, then," he said through gritted teeth. Then, brandishing his war hammer at Sunset, bellowed in his ethereal voice, "The God of Floors contests God-Empress Sunset Shimmer into a battle for a Pencil!"

Sunset raised an eyebrow in amusement. "And what if I reject?"

Parke answered by slamming his hammer's shaft to the floor.

Sweetie's scream came from the living room.

"Sweetie!" Sunset brandished her sword and scowled at Parke. "What did you do!?"

"If you win," he said with a smug smile, "you'll get your daughter back."

". . . She's not my daughter."

"Whatever. Do you agree or not?"

Sunset glared. "Fine. God-Empress Sunset Shimmer agrees to battle The God of Floors for a Pencil and her Friend."

Sunset blinked. "How did I—"

Parke took the chance to swing his hammer into Sunset's face.

Sunset fell to the floor. As she tried to stand up, Parke slammed his hammer down, taking the floor away from beneath Sunset.

Without anything to support it, the shelves, Sunset, and the counter fell down into a bottomless abyss. Sunset scrambled into a shelf and took a stack of fliers, throwing it at each of the shelves and counter. In a split second, the fliers turned the counter and the shelves into a flying counter and flying shelves.

Sunset took one herself and applied it to her back. The flier took notice of a living being, and with whirling gizmos, turned itself into a pair of carbon-black metallic wings.

Sunset spread her wings, turned her fall into a glide, and then flapped her wings to fly back to the storefront.

Parke hadn't been waiting in the remaining flooring of The Everycraftery. When Sunset was halfway to ground level, Parke greeted her with a battle stance, standing in a floating granite tile.

Sunset flicked her wrist and willed a pillar of ground to raise. When she was about to land on it, Parke merely cocked his head, and it disappeared.

Sunset stumbled, and Parke tumbled, giving her a mouthful of his hammer.

It tasted like dirt.

As Sunset flapped her wings to regain balance, she heard Parke laughing triumphantly. "Ye might be an almighty goddess with that kind of power, Lass. But remember: yer standing in my domain. And, as I command it, ye won't stand a chance!"



Einstein was having a wonderful nap until Sweetie's scream jolted him awake.

As he scrambled downstairs, he found that Sweetie was nowhere in the living room, where she should've been, if the hour hands in his absence of a wristwatch and his presence of a pocket watch were of any indication. Opening the door to the storefront, Einstein nearly fell into the bottomless pit as he grabbed the door's handle for dear life.

Taking a bow from the wall shelf, turning himself into a bowman, then taking a telescope from his pocket, Einstein pointed it down to find that, yes, it was too dark to see with a telescope.

So he put the bow back to the shelf and took a flier, which gave him a pair of carbon-black metallic wings. He jumped down.

After a few seconds of falling, he found several flying shelves, a flying counter, and Sunset flying uncontrollably upward. He caught her in a firm grip. "What happened?"

Sunset spat the lingering taste of dirt from her mouth. "The Floor god. He took Sweetie."

Einstein scowled. "Don't tell me his name is Parke."

Sunset's eyebrows shot up. "You know him?"

Einstein nodded grimly. "One of the lesser gods of Terra. Quite a caring dwarf, but greedy as hell will give him. Likes to take fallen writing utensils into his personal collection and, with it, bankrupting a lot of academies as quills of this world's quite pricy."

"And he's coming," Sunset said, pointing at the glint of light from far down below, coming fast toward them.

Einstein nodded, took a gun from his jacket pocket, and shot a Blu-ray copy of Disney and Pixar's UP from a nearby flying shelf.

As he shot up, he took Sunset along, and they both reached the storefront in an instant. Snapping his fingers, The Everycraftery teleported back into its home universe, leaving behind Sunset Shimmer, Einstein, and a gaping hole on the ground.

"Alright," Sunset said as Einstein put her down next to the hole, "we need a plan."

Einstein nodded. "I have one, but it'll be bizarre, it'll be mind-boggling, and it won't be pleasant. I need you to play along, or else it won't work."

Sunset nodded in determination. "Anything for Sweetie."

"That's cheesy as fuck," Einstein said. Then, pulling out his phone, he dialed a number. As he waited, he turned toward Sunset and gestured toward the hole on the ground before taking off and flying into the distance.

Sunset then took off as well, just in time before the ground beneath her vanished, revealing from underneath the incoming swing from Parke's hammer.

Sunset was ready. She dove forward and swung her sword, clashing with his hammer.

Upon normal circumstances, his hammer along with the one who wielded it should've been obliterated. But, as The God of Floors had taken away the ground from beneath her, Sunset couldn't stand, and so she didn't stand a chance. And so, she instead got flung backward on the impact, flailing a few paces before she stabilized herself.

The god pounced forward, giving Sunset almost no time to react after she regained her balance.

Almost.

Sunset pointed her sword toward Parke, and a massive bolt of lightning shot from the tip.

Parke didn't have time to react, and the bolt hit him dead-on. He flinched and stumbled backward on his floating tile. But, just as quickly, he regained his balance and shot forward.

Sunset flapped her wings once and managed to barely dodge his swing. As she did, she remembered what 'grounding' meant and cursed under her breath.

Parke, upon noticing that he had shot far from his target, curved in a tight circle and aimed another swing at her face.

The wings from the fliers weren't meant for agility, and so Sunset wasn't able to stop her momentum from before. So, she instead focused on the incoming swing and raised her sword to block it.

Just as expected, the force flung her backward again. This time, however, Einstein was already waiting behind her and caught her momentum.

She glanced behind to find Einstein smiling at her. Beside him, she found another man looking at her curiously. It was Newton.

"Fool!" Parke said, which prompted her to snap her vision back at him. "You can't win this fight; you don't stand a chance!"

Einstein answered him by grabbing Sunset's wings and turned them back into fliers.

Sunset nearly fell, but Einstein's grip held her tight. Then, with Newton's help, Sunset climbed them both and stood on their shoulders.

Parke laughed and lunged forward, his hammer blazing with godly powers arcing toward the trio.

Sunset took a stance and braced herself. Then, with her own mighty swing, their weapons connected.

Sunset didn't stand a chance. Sunset was standing. Not on the ground, but standing nonetheless.

Even better, she was Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.

And so, with a deafening CLANG! that could be heard from the foot of the mountain, Sunset annihilated Parke's hammer, stripping him from his powers.

Parke's floating tile turned to dust, and he fell and hit the ground hard. As he tried to stand, he grunted and scowled toward Sunset. "How!? I took away the ground from ye, ye shouldn't have been able to stand a chance against me!"

Sunset landed on the ground, followed by Einstein and Newton by her side. As she looked down at the fallen figure of the Floor god, she shook her head slowly and fixed her glasses.

She made sure that the glare from her glasses obscured her eyes from Parke's point of view (which is surprisingly easy). "I don't need the ground to stand on, Parke. I have friends to lean on when the ground fell from below me."

"That's cheesy as fuck."

"And it works."