Now, without further adieu, I present,
“A Crafter’s Dream”
Steve's feet pounded the dirt road beneath him, kicking up dirt with each step. Behind him, he could hear the furious beating of wings and angry shouting as the pegasus chased him.
"Geez, she's relentless." Steve muttered to himself, glancing back at the irate blue pegasus. However, as he looked, he noticed that the white unicorn was nowhere in sight. "Wait, where did she...?"
Circle B: Dodge
Steve was forced to roll to the side as Rainbow Dash rushed at him, missing him by mere inches. Ignoring the string of curses that she started spouting, Steve crouched, readying himself for her next attack, which came only moments later.
Circle + Square: Tackle
Grabbing her in mid-air, Steve spun himself around before throwing her into a nearby building, causing whoever was inside to cry out in surprise. Seeing his opportunity, Steve was about to run off, but hesitated for a moment. And in that moment, the pegasus managed to climb out of the building, stomping over to the Crafter. He gave a nervous smile, to which she flared her wings and growled. He sighed before taking off down the road, Rainbow Dash giving chase once again.
* * * * *
“Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, run away from the tornado.”, Steve sung quietly under his breath, the crazy pegasus yelling at him from behind to stop and “Take it like a stallion!”, which he had no intention of actually doing.
Circle: Dodge
Steve felt his instincts flare, practically screaming, “DANGER!!! DANGER!!!” He immediately rolled to the side. Just in time as well turns out, because he felt the rush of air just inches away. Back on his feet, he continued on, planning on making use of his seemingly infinite stamina. However, as soon he was on his feet, he was unceremoniously pulled off them again by what seemed to be a binding around his ankles, sending him face-down in the dirt.
“Rainbow Dash! What in tarnation is going on here!”, a new voice yelled. It sounded feminine, with a distinct country accent to it. Groaning, Steve attempted to push himself up, only for two hooves to slam into his back, sending his face to the floor once again.
“Thanks for the help! This thing attacked me and Rarity!”
“What! This thing attacked you!?” The new arrival, apparently named 'AJ', shouted in what sounded like anger. Steve tried to defend himself, yelling at the crazy horse on his back, but alas, with his face in the dirt, anything he said was just gibberish.
“Na, phse fit cirsct!!!” In response to your words, the pegasus saw fit to grind his face into the ground.
“You aren’t going anywhere you weird ape!”
Sighing into the dirt, he quickly jerked his head back. His head met muzzle, making the pegasus yelp and draw back. Violently twisting his body, he threw her off, hearing the thud of her body landing nearby. Yanking his legs, he tore himself from the bindings on his ankles. Without wasting another second, he tore off down the path, with no clear destination in mind, only to get away from these crazy ponies.
“Hey, get yer’ hide back, ya varmint!”
“Oh yeah, forgot about her. The one who tied me up. Wonder who…” Steve’s thoughts were interrupted when a loop of rope flew into his field of vision, before latching onto his torso, pinning his arms to his side. Not a second later, he felt a strong tug, pulling him back. He stumbled back but managed to stay on his feet. Whirling around, his gaze met that of the new pony, assumedly the same one that had thrown a rope on him. Twice.
She stood a little above his waist, not much taller than the others. She had an orange coat and blonde mane, on which sat a old Stetson hat. Her green eyes were narrowed at him, while the end of the rope was clenched tightly in her mouth. She pulled again, but Steve, this time not off-guard, barely moved, only sliding towards her a foot or two. Beside her the pegasus, Rainbow Dash, landed beside the pony, grinning like she’d won the lottery.
“Thanks for the help AJ!” Rainbow Dash said to the orange mare before turning to Steve.
“Nice try! Rarity’s sending an emergency letter to Canterlot right now. The Guards will deal with you then.” Steve’s eyes widened. He had wondered for a moment where the white unicorn had gone off to and now he knew. Growling, he stretched his arm behind him and searched through his inventory, looking for a specific item. In a split second, his hand closed around a small, cold orb. He brought his hand back to his side, the dark orb clenched tightly. Before either pony could say or do a thing, he flicked the orb to the side, which upon landing, teleported him away from the rope, letting it fall to the floor. Giving them a grin, he put his fists in front of him, ready for an attack.
Circle + Square: Tackle
Quickly dodging to the side, he easily avoided the pegasus’ attack. Leaping forward, he swiftly grappled the orange pony, lifting her up in a hard choke-hold, her legs kicking uselessly, her squirming doing little to dissuade Steve’s iron grip. He turned in the direction of the pegasus, giving her a good view of her struggling friend. Her eyes widened in what looked like fear and anger. She looked ready to charge before Steve spoke, voice cold and merciless.
“Come one inch closer and I’ll snap her neck like a twig.” She stopped, though it looked like it killed her to do just that, her eyes narrowed and teeth grit.
“She really cares about her.” That single thought sent a ripple of guilt through his body at what he was having to do.
“I’m going to go to the forest’s edge. If I get there unhindered, your friend goes free unharmed. If not, better start digging.” At that she flinched, but responded with anger and distrust in her voice.
“How can I trust you?” Steve replied with an icy tone.
“You don’t exactly have a choice, do you?” With that, he began slowly stepping back, getting further and further from the pegasus who failed to move. Once he had gained enough distance, he turned and ran, the mare still in his arms.
* * * * *
It wasn’t long before he had arrived at the forest’s edge. AJ had stopped her attempts at escaping, leaving her legs hanging by her side. Her heart, on the other hand, was racing very fast, the beats resounding through her chest into his arm. Not a word had been spoken between the two, but really, what would a hostage say to her captor, or vice versa. The fact that he was currently holding what was his first hostage in a long time made his stomach churn. Unfortunately, at the time he didn’t see any other options that didn’t end with dealing some serious damage to the ponies, and as he’d stated before, while they were psychotic, they weren’t deserving of that. Well, the orange pony and white pony weren’t. The blue one he had no problem slamming into the ground, seeing as she was the main cause of the whole situation.
Right before he stepped into the forest, he stopped. He’s promised he’d let AJ go when he reached the forest and he intended to do just that. But how? He didn’t have the string in his inventory to make a rope and if he let her go, there’s no guarantee she wouldn’t either attack him or try to lead any of her friends after him once he entered the forest.
Sighing, he looked up at a nearby tree. A grin formed on his face as an idea bloomed that would take care of two significant problems.
Securing the orange pony under his arm, he began climbing the tree, using any footholds and handholds he could get. Within a few moments he had reached a decently high branch.
Reaching over, he gently placed the pony, who now gave him a look of both distrust and worry, not to mention fear. Giving her a sigh, he jumped down, his feet making dull thuds on the forest floor. His work done, he began heading off into the dark when a shout stopped him.
“Hey, y’all gonna just leave me here!?” Turning back, he looked at the orange pony, who was giving him a glare from 15 feet above the ground. Casting a quick look back in the direction of town, he looked back at AJ.
“I swore I wouldn’t harm you if I returned to the forest unhindered and I wasn’t. But I can’t risk you following me, or attacking me. This was the middleground. And you don’t have to worry about being stuck. If that blur heading this way is what I think it is, you’ll be fine.”
AJ’s eye’s looked back to town. Just as the bipedal had said, a blue blur could be seen speeding towards the forest at ridiculous speeds. Her eyes narrowed.
“Wait, how did you know that..?” She turned her head back to look at the creature but was met with a shocking sight.
The creature was gone.