A Crafter's Dream (Discontinued)

by ruthim345


A Crafter's Dream Ch. 61: Subdued (Part 2)

Now, without further ado, I present,

A Crafter’s Dream

The summit went on for a while. Just as Steve had figured, many of the rulers and leaders had questions to ask. Some were simple, like when Princess Skystar has asked him what his hobbies were. Others were a bit more complicated to explain, like when the king of Griffonia had asked him where he’d learned to fight. He’d given them the truth, that he’d never been formally trained and had to learn to fight on his own against the monsters that plagued his world. This little fact seemed to interest Commander Typhoon for some reason.

Regardless, after maybe an hour or so, the questions stopped coming, and Steve could breathe a sigh of relief. None of the questions asked had been too intrusive and he’d had little trouble answering their inquiries. Taking a quick look around the room, he looked up at Celestia, who then glanced around the room as well.

Seeing that there weren’t anymore questions, the Solar Diarch cleared her throat once, then spoke. “If there are no further inquiries, then now has come the time to deliberate. The first, and only really, item on the docket is…” She glanced down at her paper. “Are there any here who think that Steve, after everything he has told us, is a threat to the lives of our citizens?”

For a moment, nothing happened. It was as if the room and all its occupants had suddenly just frozen in time. Steve’s eyes wandered over everyone else, looking for any sign of movement.

He found it.

Queen Nova stood from her seat, taking a deep, steady breath before clearing her throat. Glancing down at Steve, she spoke in a loud, clear voice. “I will be honest, Steve. When I heard the reports on you, I thought you a monster. I thought you were some terrible creature that plagued the ponies of Ponyville.” She let out a short, humorless laugh. “I judged you before I even knew what you really looked like.” Shaking her head, she continued. “This morning, when you talked to me, my daughter and Commander Typhoon, I was shocked to find out you were the infamous Steve. I thought to myself, ‘This? This is the merciless creature that is so feared by the Equestrians? That can’t be right.’ You weren’t the monster that you were made out to be, in fact, quite the opposite. You were kind and respectful, despite a bit of a vulgar tongue. If not for your appearance, I wouldn’t be able to tell you apart from a normal citizen. And then, when you came here and told us your story, I realized how wrong I truly was. You are no monster, simply a Minecraftian who has been through much and is still pushing through. You are no threat to the innocent.”

“I agree.” Steve’s gaze landed on the new speaker, King Stonewall, as he too stood. “From what I’ve heard, you are certainly dangerous, being not only tough but an extremely capable fighter. But you’ve never once killed. In all of your time here, you’ve never once taken a life, a truly remarkable feat considering everything that has happened to you since you were first ever seen.” At this, the minotaur’s hard gaze landed on Celestia for a few moments before moving back to Steve. “Dangerous as you may be, you are not a threat. Well, not unless somecreature wrongs you, that is.” At this, the smile grin the king had fell, morphing into a more somber look. “With that being said, I cannot apologize enough for anything the Black Claw has done to you in the time since their activation. I assure you, any actions taken against you will not go unpunished.”

Steve shook his head. “No, that won’t be necessary.”

“What?” King Stonewall asked, voice displaying his disbelief at the Crafter’s statement.

“Look, as much as I would love to get petty revenge against them, it would be just that. Petty. Besides, they were basically just doing what they were told to, you can’t blame them for that.”

“That is not the point, Steve.” King Ferdus spoke. “All members of the Black Claw are trained to be the absolute best of the best in fighting prowess, mental strategizing, everything. All of them, especially Aura, should’ve figured there was something wrong from the start and worked it out from there.”

“Why Aura especially?” Steve asked, eyebrow quirked.

Ferdus hesitated for a moment, then answered. “All thestral members are trained extra hard with self-control and the like.”

Steve’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Oh! Is it because of the whole ‘blood-sucking’ thing?”

Everyone's eyes widened at the Crafter’s words, Ferdus’ especially. “What? How did you…!”

Steve leaned his head back and over to reveal two, perfectly circular scars on his neck. “Found out the hard way.” He pointed to dual scars. “Got these a little while back while I was fighting Nightmares in the Mindscape.”

“When you were what?” A new voice spoke out, causing Steve to turn and see a rather tall, thin-looking zebra staring at him in concern. She wore a red and orange colored robe and a golden necklace, similar to the one Zecora wore. A silver, tri-pointed crown sat atop her head. It took a moment, but Steve managed to remember her name, Princess Seyfi. Her and her advisors had mostly remained silent during the summit, not speaking once except for giving her name during introductions.

“When I was in the Mindscape.” Steve answered her. “You know, fighting Nightmares, monsters and a literal god.” Looking around the room, Steve easily deduced from all of their expressions that this was the first time that any of them, save for Celestia, had heard of what had happened in the Mindscape. “Celestia didn’t tell you guys about what happened?”

“No, she didn’t.” Queen Nova responded, narrowing her gaze at Celestia. “Since that is the case, why don’t you fill us all in on what happened, Steve?”

Letting out a small groan at having to retell the same story twice in one day, Steve sighed and cleared his throat. “Alright, but since it’s kind of a long story, I’m going to give you all the shorter version. You all okay with that?” No objections. “Okay, so, when this all started, I was in the Everfree Forest talking to the Black Claw, well, Nod and Thorn, at least, not sure where Riz and Aura were, but anyways. I’m talking to these them, as well as General Trench, who was accompanied by a few dozen guards when, all of the sudden, Princess Celestia appears with barely a sound, landing a little ways away, eyes closed. Me and Trench both begin to approach her when I get this really bad feeling in my gut, yelling at me that something’s wrong. Before I can do anything, her eyes open and there’s this bright flash of light and I pass out or something. When I wake up, I’m in this dark room, alone.” Steve hesitated for a moment. “Alone, except for Herobrine.” He sighed. “Look, I’m not sure how he ended up in your world. But he did. And from what I saw, he was the main reason for everything that’s happened to me, from being attacked at Ponyville to the Black Claw, all of it. It was all him. That’s mainly why I don’t think that Aura and the others should be punished, since I don’t think it was entirely their fault. Anyways, instead of trying to kill me, he told me that he had trapped several others in the Mindscape and that I had to free them or die, basically. So, I fought my way through the first Nightmare and freed General Trench. It was fighting the second Nightmare, Aura’s Nightmare, when I got these.” Steve gestured again to the scars on his neck. “I won’t tell you exactly what her Nightmare was, for privacy reasons, but know that I don’t blame her in the least for what happened. Anyways, after fighting through all seven of the Nightmares, I freed those trapped inside, which included Trench, Aura, Rizworth, Rainbow Dash, Princess Celestia, and Derpy and Dinky Hooves, two very close friends of mine. However, the final battle was still to come, where me and the people I’d freed, as well as Abyss, another friend of mine, would have to fight Herobrine.”

“And considering you’re standing here now, I assume you won?” King Stonewall asked.

Steve gave a small nod. “Yeah, we won. But we almost didn’t. If it weren’t for Nightmare Steve, I’m not sure we would’ve been able to defeat him.”

“If not for who?” The griffonian king asked, sounding thoroughly confused.

The Crafter mentally face-palmed. “Oh, yeah, I forgot. Uh, one sec.” Putting two fingers to one ear, he spoke aloud. “Hey Nightmare, can you come on out?”

‘Sure thing.’ The Nightmare responded. A moment later, Steve felt something inside him tug free, the unexpected sensation making him open his mouth in a silent gasp. Putting one hand on his chest, he took a deep breath.

“You okay?” A familiar voice spoke from his side. Looking up. He saw none other than Nightmare Steve standing next to him. He was the same height as the Crafter, seemingly made entirely of a black vapor save for the pair of glowing white eyes.

“Whoa.” Steve remarked, gaze wandering over the Nightmare. "I forgot just how sick you look.”

Nightmare Steve chuckled. “Thanks.” Looking out over the assembled leaders and ambassadors, the Nightmare waved. “Hello everyone. I’m Nightmare Steve.”

No one spoke, too busy staring at the Nightmare with shock. Steve let out a quiet chuckle at their gobsmacked expressions.

“Well look at that, Nightmare Steve.” He spoke with a grin. “You shocked them all into silence.”

“...How?” Queen Nova inquired, being the first to get her voice back. “How did you tame a Nightmare?”

“Well, I didn’t really tame him. He decided to help me out of his own volition.”

“Herobrine put me in Steve in the hopes that once Steve turned into a Nightmare, he’d be able to control him.” Nightmare Steve explained. “Obviously, I didn’t like being used like that, so I teamed up with Steve here and helped him take Herobrine down.”

“So you killed him.” Princess Seyfi spoke. “He is gone, yes?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, he’s gone. But that’s the thing.” He sighed and shook his head. “I’ve killed him before, and he still came back. I’m not sure how gods work, but I don’t think I can kill him, not fully. He’ll come back, maybe in a few months, maybe in a few years, but he’ll come back. Eventually.”

“What can we do, to stop him?” Celestia asked, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Steve opened his mouth to answer, then closed it as he put a hand to his chin in thought. After a moment, he sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought killing him the first time would be the end of it, but clearly I was wrong. There’s only one person that I know of that could probably kill him, and he can’t leave his world.”

“Who?” King Stonewall asked.

“Notch, the god of Minecraftia and the creator of the Minecraftian race. My race.” Steve answered.

“Your creator?” The griffon king echoed, to which the Crafter nodded.

“Yeah. Created every Crafter, villager, and peaceful mob that lived in my world. Through him, my world stays alive. If he were to leave, say, come to this dimension and fight Herobrine, the world will die. Because of this, he can’t help us.”

“So what you’re saying,” Princess Seyfi began. “Is that this, ‘Herobrine’ is immortal? That he cannot ever be fully and completely defeated?”

“...Yes.” Steve spoke solemnly, giving a small nod.

“...We are doomed.” King Ferdus spoke softly, voice grim.

“No.” The Crafter spoke firmly, shaking his head. “We’re not. Because as long as I live, as long as I draw breath, I will fight him. Whenever he shows his ugly mug, I’ll be there. Everytime, either until he is defeated, once and for all.” A pause, during which Steve took a breath. “Or until I fall. I promise you all this, be it alone,” He looked at Nightmare Steve with a grin. “Or with the help of others, I will fight him. I swear this on the memories of those that have been slain at his hands.” He looked up at those assembled with a smirk. “And you can trust the promise of a Crafter.”

* * * * *

In a mountain cave in the Everfree Forest

Abyss sat alone, the fire burning nearby warming her cool, black scales. In one hand was a large chunk of Manticore meat she’s gotten from hunting.

Chomp

Chomp

Chewing the lightly-cooked flesh, she swallowed and let out a heavy sigh as she looked at the entrance to her cave.

Nothing.

Maybe you should go find him. Her inner voice said.

No, she responded. He’ll come find me. He’s probably just busy.

You felt his Nightmare activate that night. He could be in danger. It persisted.

He can take care of himself. Abyss argued back.

He isn’t invincible. He could be hurt. Are you really going to abandon those you love a second time?

Abyss didn’t respond this time, instead taking another bite out of the meat in her claw. Letting out another sigh, she tossed it aside, having lost her appetite. Getting up, she walked to the cave entrance and took a look outside.

Nothing. Frowning, she turned and was about to walk back inside when she felt something, something she’d only ever felt once before. She whirled around and looked out over the vast landscape before her.

“No, it can't be.” She muttered to herself as her wings spread wide and she flew off, hoping against hope she wasn’t too late.