//------------------------------// // A Crafter's Dream Ch. 34: Trial by Fire (Part 2) // Story: A Crafter's Dream (Discontinued) // by ruthim345 //------------------------------// Now, without further ado, I present, “A Crafter’s Dream” The brown unicorn now known as Codswell stepped up to Iron Gavel and hoofed him a slip of paper. Gavel glanced down at it for a moment, before looking at Rainbow Dash. “I will now read out the charges for all to hear. Rainbow Dash, you have been charged with aggravated assault of the second degree. How do you plead?” She sighed. “Guilty.” Gavel nodded, then continued. “You have been charged with assault with a deadly weapon. How do you plead?” Her eyes squinted shut and a small tear formed. “Guilty.” “Lastly, you have been charged with lying to authorities. How do you plead?” Steve sighed, expecting to hear the same word for a third time. However, he was shocked for a moment at what he heard. “I plead, not guilty.” Steve looked over that the prismatic mare, but her gaze was locked on the judge. Gavel looked down at her with a raised eyebrow, before letting out a sigh. “Very well. The accused has plead not guilty.” He looked over at the green mare sitting next to Steve. “Attorney Mint, you may make your opening…” “Hold on.” Steve spoke, interrupting the judge. Everypony in the room looked at the Crafter with shocked expressions. “Before we go full legal on this shit, I would like to know.” He turned to look at Rainbow. “Why is it you plead guilty on the first two, but not the last?” She let out a small sigh. “Because I never lied to any authorities.” Steve looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Oh? In that case, let me ask you something.” He spoke, expression serious. “When the Princesses were informed about me, what did they hear? Did they hear about the Crafter who was blatantly attacked for no reason, or about the guy who was the victim of some horrible misunderstanding? Or did they hear about the monster that wandered into Ponyville and attacked some of its citizens? Because that's the vibe I've been getting.” He walked over to her and calmly put a hand on the table. “Look Dash. I consider you a friend, despite our past conflicts, so please tell me. If it wasn't you, who was it?” Dash refused to meet his eyes as she spoke. “Look, I'm not saying it's not my fault, it really is. But nopony lied to any authorities, as far as I know. My friend, Twilight, she has direct messaging to Princess Celestia. I told her about my fights with you and she contacted the Princess.” “And since she couldn't have known any better, she didn't lie either. So you just lied to your friend, not to any authorities.” Steve concluded, causing the prismatic mare to flinch. “While it's not right, lying to a friend isn't something you can go to jail for.” Nodding his head, he put a hand to his chin in thought. “But still, when the guards and the death squad arrived, why didn't you say or do anything? Wouldn't they have at least listened to you?” Dash looked up at him. “I, I don't know. Sure I could've said something, and maybe they would've listened, but I just, didn't. And I'm not sure why.” Steve nodded. “Don’t worry, I already have a pretty good idea why, but I'll get to that later. First things first, we gotta deal with stuff here.” Sighing, he turned to look at Judge Gavel. “Hey Mr. Gavel, I got a question. Who, exactly, is pressing these charges?” Iron Gavel looked at Steve with a confused expression. “Uh, you are, Mr. Steve.” Steve blinked. “Oh. In that case. Fuck this, I wish to drop all charges.” Steve said, a smirk on his face. “Problem solved.” “I’m afraid it’s not as easy as that.” Mint spoke from beside him, destroying his hopes for this situation to be easily resolved. He turned to look at her. “Why not? I’m not pressing charges anymore, so how about we all go home and call it a day?” “Because the fact of the matter is, Ms. Rainbow Dash has been suspected of committing crimes that cannot be overlooked so easily.” Iron Gavel spoke, a serious expression on his face. Steve scoffed. “What kind of crimes? I get that she attacked me for no reason and stuff like that, but I don’t…” “She reportedly struck you with a lightning bolt. That alone is a serious offense.” said Gavel, tone grave. Steve stopped as he remembered what Derpy had told him a while back. “Sorry about that. Just, what do you mean lightning strike?!” She asked loudly. Steve raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Uh, yeah, what’s so bad about that? I mean, sure it hurt like the Nether, but so what?” Her eyes were wide in shock and disbelief. “That’s illegal! Using lightning against a sentient being is a crime punishable by 3 year’s jail time or a 5,000 bit fine, last I checked!” ‘So in other words,’ Steve thought as everypony looked at him, ‘if I don’t do something, she’s screwed.’ He looked at Dash, then around the room. ‘Aw shit, what do I do?’ “Whether you wish to press charges or not, what she has done can’t simply be written off.” Iron Gavel spoke with a forlorn sigh. Steve nodded. “Yeah, makes sense. Just because I don’t care about what doesn’t happened, doesn’t mean the law doesn’t, correct?” Steve chuckled as a plan formulated in his brain. “Uh, yes, I suppose.” Gavel affirmed, looking at the Crafter with a confused expression. In response, Steve let out a small laugh, before grabbing his chair and walking up to the judge’s seat. Placing it down, he stood on top of it, making him just a little bit taller than the seated stallion. “Well, you seem to be unaware of a few things, Judge Gavel, two things in fact. For one, I was never one for legal processes. Two, I happen to have a Chaotic Good alignment, morale wise.” “Chaotic, what? What does that mean?” Gavel asked as he looked up at Steve. “Well, it means a lot of things. It means that I have a strong conscience and want to do what’s right. It means I’ll do what I think is right, regardless of what the law thinks. Basically, to sum it up,” Quick as lightning, Steve reached forward, grabbing Gavel’s shoulders before pulling back, slamming the stallion’s muzzle into the desk with a solid “Thwack!” Gavel crumbled from the blow, falling out of his chair. “It means FUCK YOUR LEGAL SYSTEM!!” Steve yelled. Ignoring the surprised cries from the jury, he hopped off the chair and ran towards Dash, who stared at him with a shocked expression. D-Pad Up: Sword Reaching over his shoulder, he withdrew his blade to cut her chains. Before he could reach her, however, the two guards from before stepped in front of the mare, blocking his path. Steve rolled his eyes. X: Jump Square: Slash Triangle: Kick Jumping up, he slashed his blade at one guard, simultaneously kicking one straight in the face, sending both to the floor. Landing back on his feet, he raised his sword and cut through Dash’s chains with a single blow, letting the bonds fall to the floor. Before she could say a word, he hastily picked her up and placed the mare over his shoulder. Taking off in a sprint, he busted the door to the room down before running down the short hallway and bursting out into the crowded street with Dash still in tow, where he was met with his companions arguing, rather loudly, with the guards. Upon his sudden entry, they stopped and looked at him with confusion. “Steve, what happened?” Trench began. “No time!! Run!!” Steve yelled as he pushed past the ponies. “Stop him!! He's escaping with the convict!!” someone shouted from within the building. As Steve made it to the edge of the crowd, he glanced back and saw about half-a-dozen guards chasing after him, the herd of ponies parting for them. Circle: Dodge Steve leapt to the side as a bolt of magic shot past. Two more followed suit, but missed him by a short distance. Increasing his speed, the Crafter slowly began gaining distance from his pursuers. With the streets being mostly empty, he didn’t have to worry about obstacles in his path. After about a minute, he took a moment to look back and was happy to see they were a considerable distance behind him now. “Ha Ha!! See you, ya fu-WAH!!” Steve’s sentence was cut off as he tripped. He was too busy looking behind him to notice at the time, but some colts had left a hoofball in the middle of the street, directly in his path. Caught off-guard, he slipped onto his back, sending Dash flailing. After skidding in the dirt for a short distance, he came to a stop. Damage Received - 1 damage. 36 health remaining. Grunting, he pushed himself to his feet, shaking himself off. Just as he did so, the guards giving case caught up, surrounding the duo with spears while the lone unicorn in the group had his horn glowing. “You are under arrest. Drop your weapon and get on your knees.” One of the guards commanded. Steve sighed and started to reach up for his blade, preparing for a fight. VOOP!! Suddenly, Steve’s vision darkened and cut out for a moment. The next thing he knew, he was back in the main square, Rainbow Dash sitting beside him and no guards in sight. “What the…?” He began. “Steve, you’re alright!” spoke a familiar voice from behind him. Whirling around, he saw his friends standing a few feet from where he was. Celestia was there as well, horn glowing after what Steve figured was her teleporting him. Abyss walked up to him with a smile on her face. “Yeah, I’m alright. Just a little scratched up, nothing too bad.” He glanced at the Solar Princess. “Thanks for the help. I wasn’t really in the mood to fight those guys.” “You are welcome, though I request that you not make it a regular thing to harass my guards.” She responded with an even expression. “Hey, I’m not the one who sent them at me. As long as they’re trying to kill me, I’ll mess with them as much as I wish.” As he said this, Steve thought he saw the alicorn flinch slightly, but simply played it off as a trick of the mind. Turning to the side, he saw Dash looking at all of them in confusion and slight fear. “What’s going on here?” She said as she stood on all four legs. “Why are all four of you here?” She looked at Abyss and took a step back. “And who the buck is that?!” Steve sighed and clamped a hand to his face. “Oh, right. Introductions. Well, I’ll make this short. The first is, obviously, Princess Celestia, who you’ve definitely met.” The diarch waved with a smile. “Hello again Rainbow Dash.” The mare waved back. “The second is General Trench. He’s been running things in the guard barracks back at Ponyville.” “Hello, Ms. Dash.” Trench stated with a slight bow. “This is Aura, you may have seen her around town.” “Sup? The thestral mare inquired, lifting a hoof. “And last, but certainly not least, my good friend Abyss, a kick-ass dragon with healing abilities.” At his words, the dragoness smiled and waved. “Huh. Cool.” Dash glanced up at the Crafter. “How did you two meet?” Abyss opened her mouth to respond, but Steve cut her off. “Kind of a long story. Remind me to tell you later.” “Hey, speaking of telling, what happened in there?” Aura stepped forward, curious. “What was Ms. Rainbow on trial for?” Dash backed up slightly, becoming clearly nervous. Steve reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. Kneeling down in front of her, his eyes looked into her’s, filled with a gentleness not usually seen. “Dash, listen. If you don’t want to talk about it, then you don’t have to. Okay?” He spoke with a quiet and calming voice. Taking a deep breath, she smiled and nodded. “Thanks Steve. I really don’t wanna talk about it right now.” “And that’s alright. Now, I don’t want to take Pinkamena's job, but how about a hug? You look to be in need of one.” He inquired, spreading his arms wide. He didn’t normally do this, but he could tell she needed one. Letting out a small laugh, she returned it, resting her chin on his sturdy shoulder. After a few moments, they separated. “Better?” Steve asked. She nodded with a smile. “Yeah, thanks.” “No problem. Now, I don’t know for sure what…” Steve was interrupted by a loud “BING!!” sound. Whirling around, he saw the door appear out of thin air, just as it had done the previous three times. He smirked at the sudden arrival. “What is that?” Rainbow Dash asked, eyebrow raised. “That, my fine, feathery friend, is our ticket out of here.” Reaching over, he gripped the door handle and turned the knob before opening the door. Turning back around, he grinned at the group. “See ya on the other side.” And he stepped through. * * * * * “STEVE!!” “He isn’t responding!” “STEVE!!” “STEVE!!” “C’mon, wake up!” “STEVE!!” “Son of a bitch!” Steve cried out as he sat up, immediately jumping to his feet. However, he lost his balance and fell on his back. Groaning, he propped himself up on his elbows. Looking up, he was met by the terrified faces of Trench, Aura, Dash and Abyss. Even Celestia looked worried. “What the Nether happened? Why are you guys yelling?” He asked, utterly confused. “We were trying to wake you up!” Trench said in a loud, shaky voice. “Wake me up? What are you even talking about? I don’t…” “Steve.” Abyss spoke, her calm voice laced with terror. “You were unconscious for three hours.” His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “What?”