A Tale of Crafters and Ponies

by Dolphy Blue Drake

Chapter 13: Information

Chapter 13: Information

------Dolphy------

After I greeted the Testificate librarian, I got right to the point.

“Do you remember the day the other Crafters got kidnapped?” I asked.

“I still remember it as if it were yesterday,” he replied, shuddering. “That brute killed our village’s iron golem on his way through here. We have another one now, but we were furious at the time. We still are, but we’re too afraid of him to do anything about it.”

I fought the urge to ask him what in the Overworld they could do about it (since Testificates can’t fight), and asked him a more relevant question to our situation, instead.

“I’m trying to find him so I can rescue them,” I said. “Do you know where I can find him?”

The villager stared at me in disbelief.

“He’s too powerful!” he said, shaking his head. “He can do things that defy all explanation! He’s pure evil, and I don’t think you have any chance of defeating him! You’d best go back home and forget about your friends.”

I glared at the Testificate and growled. “My wife was one of the ones he kidnapped,” I said through clenched teeth, “I’m not about to abandon her. Especially not after I promised our daughter that I’d get her back so we can be a family again.”

The villager gulped and backed up a few steps.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said, “I didn’t realize that you had such an attachment to one of them. But to be honest, I don’t know where he is. I may be the scholar in this village, but my expertise doesn’t include that information. I’ve tried to forget about him ever since that day, to be honest. Our priest might know, though. He has connections to the higher powers that the rest of us don’t. He might be able to ask the divine Creators for guidance.”

“That’s alright,” I told him as I relaxed my expression. “Is he in the church at the moment?”

The librarian nodded, so I thanked him before turning to walk in the direction of the village’s church.

------Ponies (Dolphy’s Group)------

The three ponies stopped to stare at what looked like a bulky metal version of the Testificates. It had the same kind of head, but it was smaller in proportion to the rest of its body. It didn’t fold its arms like the Testificates, either. Instead, they swung back and forth as it walked, wobbling from side to side.

“What is that?” Twilight wondered.

“You’ve never seen an iron golem before?” a Testificate child asked as he walked up to them.

“No,” Rainbow Dash replied.

The iron golem walked up to the young villager and held out a red flower to the child.

“This is our protector,” the child explained as he took the flower from the golem. “It protects us because we can’t defend ourselves. The scary zombies are always coming after us at night, so it knocks them flying while we hide in our homes.”

“It looks kinda slow,” Applejack remarked.

“It doesn’t have to be fast,” the child replied. “It’s so strong, it kills zombies in one hit! Sometimes it takes two, though.”

“How does it work?” Twilight asked as the golem wandered off to resume what was most likely a patrol of the village.

“I dunno,” the child said. “Not even the grownups do. It just walks on its own. I don’t think its alive, but the grownups say that doesn’t matter, just as long as it keeps us safe.”

“Do you at least know how it’s made?” Dash asked.

“I think my dad said it takes four iron blocks and a pumpkin,” he replied, causing the ponies to look at him in disbelief. “Anyway, I gotta go! The other kids are calling me to play with them!”

With that, the young Testificate ran off in the direction of some other children who were waving at him.

“Well, that’s weird, to say the least,” Dash remarked.

“Let’s just forget about that,” Applejack said.

The other two ponies nodded in agreement and set off in the direction of a tall cobblestone structure that was at least twice as tall as the other buildings.

When they got there, they saw Dolphy enter, so they followed.

Inside, there was a Testificate in magenta robes.

“Ah, Brother Dolphy,” he said as he noticed the dragon-like. “How may I help you? Do you need me to enchant something?”

“Not today,” the Crafter replied. “I need to know where the creature who kidnapped my wife and friends ran off to ten months ago.”

“Ah, you’ve come to ask me to inquire of the divine trio of Notch, Jeb and Dinnerbone, have you?” the villager asked, raising an eyebrow. “My service as a medium won’t come cheap.”

“I know,” Dolphy said, pulling out a few blocks of some kind of green gem. “I hope four emerald blocks will be enough. You’re the only priest for quite a distance.”

The priest’s jaw dropped at the sight of the blocks.

“Yes,” he said as he regained his composure and took the blocks from the Crafter. “This should be enough for my services.”

Dolphy turned to look at the ponies behind him and winked. The look on his face seemed to say, “that price was nothing.”

After pocketing the blocks, the priest motioned for all of them to sit down, which they did.

After they were all seated, the Testificate started chanting, and his body became enveloped in an unnatural light that seemed to come from nowhere.

Suddenly, the priest stopped chanting, and his eyes took on a glazed look.

“We are the Creators, what do you ask of us?” the priest said, his own voice replaced by what sounded like three male voices speaking at once.

“I thank you for allowing me to speak to you—“ Dolphy began, but was cut off.

“We didn’t come for pleasantries,” one of the voices said. “We came because you wanted to ask us a question.”

“Oh, right.” The dragon-like said, blinking in surprise. “My wife and friends were kidnapped over ten months ago. Where did the kidnapper flee to?”

“He didn’t flee,” another one of the voices said. “He’s been waiting for you to come after him so he can destroy you.”

“Why me?” the dragon-like asked in confusion. “I’m nothing special.”

“Herobrine would disagree with that statement,” the third voice replied. “He saw you as the strongest of the group, and wanted to make you squirm for his own enjoyment. We are the ones who placed all sixteen of you in this world. Herobrine prevented those he killed from coming back to life unless he had special uses for them.”

“We chose to combine our strengths to allow two of each race to be reincarnated in this world,” the first explained. “You have little to no recollection of the life you originally had because you were reincarnated instead of simply being revived.”

The second voice spoke again. “We chose the strongest Crafters we could find, and out of all of them, you were the strongest of all. Herobrine knows this, and that’s why he singled you out. He killed all of your friends, then only allowed three to come back to life, so that you’d feel loss, but not give up yet.”

The third voice took over from there. “Then, he kidnapped your wife and remaining friends so that you’d feel despair and anger. He wants to crush you for his own enjoyment, as well as to make a mockery of us. We knew that you weren’t anywhere near strong enough to defeat him, so we enlisted some help for you.”

The priest turned to the ponies, but the first voice was the one who spoke. “We’re deeply sorry for tearing you out of your world like that. We saw you as the best candidates for the task, and we had no time to ask for your consent.”

“It’s alright, sugarcube,” Applejack replied, causing the other two ponies to look at her in slight confusion.

“The other twelve Crafters are trapped in limbo,” the second voice said. “Slaying Herobrine would allow them to come back to life, but defeating him as you are now would be quite difficult. He has a device in his lair that can break his hold on them, however. The ancient Crafters invented it to try to fight him, but he killed them and stole it before they could use it.”

“You’ll be able to defeat him in combat as you currently are,” the third voice added, “but killing him will prove close to impossible. To maximize your chances, you’ll need all sixteen of you.”

“I thank you for this information,” Dolphy replied, “but where is he?”

“The journey is quite a long one,” the first voice said. “You’ll have to cross several biomes.”

“The location is East of here,” the second voice added. “You’ll find him in the center of an Ominous Woods biome. It’s about 35,000 blocks away.”

“Thank you,” Dolphy replied.

“Good luck,” the third voice said. “The future of all Crafters depends on you.”

The priest blinked and shook his head.

“Did they tell you what you needed to know?” he asked.

“They did,” the dragon-like said as he shook the Testificate’s hand. “Thank you for your help.”

“That was strange,” Twilight said after they left the building. “What kind of magic was that?”

“That was part priest magic, and part the power of the divine trio,” Dolphy told her. “They created this world, and they know all and see all. They’re pretty much gods.”

Rainbow Dash looked up to see the square sun was setting.

“You said we’re going to spend the night here, right?” Dash asked.

“That’s right,” the dragon-like replied. “I’m going to set up a quick shelter, and then we can get some sleep.”

“By the way, who controls the sun and moon in this world?” Twilight asked. “In our world, they’re controlled by Princess Celestia and her sister, Princess Luna.”

“No one does,” the Crafter said. “They just move on their own. They always have. The sun rises while the moon sets, and the moon rises while the sun sets. It’s like clockwork.”

“Interesting,” was all Twilight said in response, and they walked in silence until the group reached the edge of the village.

“Wait for just a minute,” the Crafter told the ponies. “I’ll have a reasonable shelter up in a jiffy.”

The ponies watched in stunned silence as the blue dragon-like rapidly placed down cobblestone blocks to create a shelter. Within less than a minute, the structure was complete: a simple, four block tall, eleven block by seven block house with no windows, but it had a single wooden door in the center of the front.

Dolphy opened the front door and motioned for the ponies to follow him inside. As they did, he attached torches to the walls in regular intervals.

Once he saw that they were all inside, he closed the door and placed four beds down on the grassy floor.

“It’s quite small,” the Crafter said, “but it’ll work. We need to get to sleep quickly, though. We’ll have to get up bright and early tomorrow so I can take down the shelter before we go.”

------Dolphy------

I watched as my three companions got into bed and fell asleep, and then I pulled out my journal to complete this entry. This day has been quite eventful, and I’m sure this journey will be far from boring. I fear for the children somewhat, but I’m sure they're in good hands—I mean hooves—with the three who stayed behind.

Enjoy your life while you can, Herobrine. We’re coming for you.

Author's Note:

Special thanks to mrlordowaffles for being my editor! You really helped me to polish this chapter. Without you, this story would probably suck.

Comments

[Dolphy Blue Drake]

Here's Chapter 13! I hope you all enjoy this one! Chapter 14 should be here soon, too!

[muffinator]

I comment here also yo