A Tale of Crafters and Ponies

by Dolphy Blue Drake

Chapter 9: Serious Training

Chapter 9: Serious Training

------Ponies------

Rainbow Dash watched as an ugly, blocky creature with eight glowing red eyes charged Dolphy’s daughter. She swung her sword, but the spider struck first, knocking her back.

The little girl shrugged off the pain as if it were nothing, jumped into the air, and brought her sword down on the creature’s head.

The spider shrieked and recoiled from the pain, but just started charging the girl again.

As the spider jumped towards the young dragon-like, the little girl swung her sword again and knocked the spider away again.

Kryanna ran to the spider and slashed a third time, killing it.

Rainbow Dash cheered at the display of strength and skill, and the little girl beamed proudly.

“Very good, Krya!” Dolphy shouted. “Getting struck only once is actually quite remarkable for your first fight with a spider!”

“Come on!” Rainbow Dash shouted, “there’s gotta be something stronger you can give her!”

“Yeah Daddy!” the pink dragon-like agreed, “something tougher!”

“All right then!” her father replied. “Let’s see how you deal with a zombie! Just remember: a zombie might create more zombies when it gets hurt, so be careful!”

Rainbow Dash heard the sound of another button clicking, and the gate to the monster pen opened up again, this time releasing a slow-walking, decaying green bipedal creature about the same size as Dolphy, but about the same shape as the human boy, Huey.

The zombie groaned and approached the young Crafter with arms outstretched.

Kryanna sprinted towards her opponent and struck with her sword before it could touch her, knocking it back.

She dashed and struck it again, causing it to recoil again, but…

Suddenly, there were two of them!

Kryanna finished off the first, and then turned to face the second zombie. The creature managed to get in a hit, but the young dragon-like was unfazed and retaliated with another strike from her sword.

The zombie grunted and resumed its approach.

The pink Crafter swung again, getting in another hit, but as she finished it with her third strike…

A smaller version of the zombie appeared!

“A baby one? Is this some kind of joke?” Rainbow Dash shouted.

That soon proved to not be the case. The smaller zombie was quite fast, and Kryanna had extreme difficulty getting in hits on it.

“Daddy! It’s too fast!” she cried out.

With an incredible burst of speed, the girl’s father dashed into the arena, picked up his daughter with his left hand, and attacked the small zombie with the enchanted sword in his right.

“Get back!” he shouted as he swung his sword at the miniature terror, “you’ve ruined a perfectly good training session! Now back to the Void, where you belong!”

The glowing sword struck the zombie, knocking it back several blocks and causing it to burst into flames.

The baby zombie rushed the adult Crafter, but with one more strike, it fell over dead.

“Are you alright, Krya?” the blue dragon-like asked with concern in his voice.

“I’m fine now, Daddy,” she replied, rubbing her cheek against her father’s arm. “Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry for asking for something so strong.”

“Actually, it’s partially my fault,” the older dragon-like confessed. “I forgot that zombies could summon infant versions of themselves. I should’ve remembered that. I’m sorry I put you in danger like that.”

“It’s okay, Daddy,” she said as he put her down, “what matters is that you saved me.”

“That… was… AWESOME!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she darted towards the pair. “You took out that little creep like it was nothing special!”

Dolphy blushed in embarrassment. “It’s just the skill I built up over the years, really. Anyone can get that good with enough training.”

“Anyway, I think that’s enough training for one night,” he added. “I think we should all get some sleep.”

With that, the trio returned to Town Hall to do just that.

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

After we got inside, I helped Krya to get to her room. She had gotten tired pretty fast.

Once she was in bed, I tucked her in and gave her a good night kiss on the forehead. She smiled at that and whispered, “I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too, my little angel,” I replied, and then I left the room to write the rest of this entry and get some sleep. I didn’t expect to see our guests waiting for me outside my room.

But there they were: all six of them.

------Ponies------

“Wait. I thought you had all gone to bed!” Dolphy exclaimed when he saw the ponies in front of his bedroom door.

“We had,” Rarity replied, “but it was impossible to sleep with all that racket coming from across town! I’m amazed the children here could sleep through all that!”

“According to what Rainbow Dash told us, you were having your daughter fight creatures all by herself,” Twilight added. “Why?”

Before the dragon-like could reply, Applejack spoke up.

“How could ya do somethin’ like that? Ya put yer own little one in danger, just like that? What kinda father are ya?”

“There’s some things I guess I should tell you,” Dolphy sighed. “This world is a very dangerous place. I may not be around forever. There will come a time when I won’t be able to protect my little angel all the time. She’s still little, but she shows promise, and I can’t let that go to waste. The most important rule in this world is this: survive. If something happens to me that would prevent me from being able to protect her, how could I live with myself if she couldn’t protect herself in such a situation?”

The blue dragon-like took a breath, sat on the floor, and continued. “It’s thanks to sheer luck that I didn’t get kidnapped along with my wife and friends. Yes, these children need me, but that fiend could return at any time and take me too. If that happens, how will these children survive? I try to teach them everything I can—including combat—because I know that they’ll have to be able to protect themselves. This town sits in a biome that’s infested with one of the most dangerous monsters in the Overworld: witches. Armor has little effect against witches unless properly enchanted. These children shouldn’t have to spend their entire lives inside these walls, but if they can’t fend off witches, there’s little choice. I don’t want these children to be prisoners in their own hometown. And if that requires teaching them how to fight monsters, then by Notch, I’ll do it.”

The ponies stared at him for a while before any of them replied.

Fluttershy finally broke the silence.

“I understand that you want to keep them safe, I just didn’t realize that you’d have to do it that way. I understand now.”

“I’m sorry, too, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “Yer just tryin’ to make sure she can protect herself.”

The other ponies nodded in agreement.

“Thank you,” Dolphy said as he stood up. “I think we should all go to bed. Thanks for understanding.”

All the ponies left after that, except for Rainbow Dash.

“Sorry about that,” the blue pegasus said, “I didn’t expect them to get so mad at you.”

The dragon-like smiled. “It’s fine, Rainbow Dash. We got this sorted out, and that’s all that matters. I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”

With that, Rainbow Dash also went to bed, and Dolphy retired to his room for the night.

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

This day’s almost over, so I should be getting some sleep, but I have one final thought.

Hold on, my love. I can feel it: I’ll be coming to rescue you soon.

Author's Note:

Special thanks to mrlordowaffles for being my editor! Your help really means a lot to me.

Comments

[Dolphy Blue Drake]

Well, here's another chapter! Chapter 10 should be here soon!

[Dolphy Blue Drake]

3746645 Thanks!