A Crafter's Dream Ch. 38: Getting Back Up
Now, without further ado, I present,
“A Crafter’s Dream”
Celestia watched as Steve and his team walked through the door on the far right, disappearing into the darkness. A few moments later, the door shook slightly and vanished in a small burst of light.
Aura spoke. “Huh. So that’s what happens after we go through a door.”
“Alright everyone, let’s get going.” Abyss spoke up, garnering their attention. “We don’t have any time to waste.” The dragoness walked over to the last remaining door and opened it. Taking a deep breath, she stepped through. Aura and Riz followed close behind her, leaving Celestia alone in the room. The Solar Princess sighed heavily, then trotted over to the door and stepped through.
* * * * *
It was a dark night in the town of Ponyville. A dense fog had creeped over the town. The moons light was snuffed out by thick clouds that covered the sky. A light rain fell, pattering softly against the cobblestone road. The town itself seemed dead.
‘Though that’s probably because it’s so late.’ Celestia thought as she traveled down the road with her companions. ‘But even then, there is usually still ponies up and about at this time.’
“Damn, this fog is thick. I can barely see.” Riz muttered. “Hey Princess, can you whip up some spell that will let us see please?”
“Absolutely, Rizworth. Give me a moment.” Celestia concentrated for a second, channeling magic into her horn. A small ball of light swiftly formed on the tip of her horn, lighting up the road and managing to break through the fog, to a certain extent. Everyone in the group smiled.
“Good.” Abyss spoke. “Now c’mon everyone, let’s keep moving. Someone needs our help.”
“Yeah, but even with the Princess’ spell, how can we…?” Aura began to speak, but stopped suddenly, ears perking up. Everyone looked at the thestral in confusion.
“Aura? What is it?” Riz asked, stepping closer, only for her to put out a hoof.
“Shush. I heard something.” There was a few more moments of silence before she spoke again. “I heard it again. Follow me.” Without another word, the thestral ran off, leaving the dragoness, griffon and alicorn to follow.
“Miss Aura, wait!!” Celestia called out, taking off after the thestral with Abyss and Riz beside her. After about a minute running, the trio finally managed to catch up with Aura, probably due to the fact that she had stopped. And, when the Solar Princess listened for a moment, she understood why.
Crying. That was what Aura had heard, only the whole group could hear it now. The sound of crying was emanating from somewhere in front of them. It sounded so, desperate and sorrowful, but that wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that the owner sounded young, very young.
Eyebrows furrowed in worry, Celestia slowly made her way forward. What came into sight caused her to give a silent gasp, an action that was repeated by the rest of her team.
It was Steve. He was sitting up against the wall, head tilted down. His right arm was twisted at an, assumedly, unnatural angle. His cyan blue shirt, which was now stained red, was shredded, revealing the multiple cuts and bruises underneath. His leg appeared to have been broken multiple times, as seen by the bones protruding from it. Beside him, his blue sword lay on the ground, broken in two.
Laying just beside him, was a gray pegasus mare. Her blonde mane was askew as her yellow pupils stared lifelessly into the sky above. One of her wings had seemingly been torn off, since it lay a few feet to the side, while the other was mangled and red. A dozen or so wounds littered her body, blood dripping from them. Celestia recognized her as the Ponyville mail-mare, Derpy Hooves.
And there, hugging both Crafter and mare, was the source of the crying. It was a small unicorn filly, with a light, violet colored fur and blonde mane. The Solar Princess recognized her as Derpy’s young daughter, Dinky. She had her back to the group, too busy crying her heart out, hugging both Steve and Derpy tightly.
Celestia slowly made her way forward, being careful to not startle the filly. Once she was closer, but still a short distance away, she spoke in a quiet, calm voice.
“Dinky?”
Dinky cried out in alarm and whirled around, eyes wide in terror. Upon seeing Celestia, as well as who she was with, she gasped and took a step back.
“P-princess? W-what are y-you doing here?” She asked, voice cracking. Celestia merely looked at her with a sorrowful look. She slowly moved forward, causing the filly to tense and look up. Once she was right in front of Dinky, Celestia sat down, then spoke.
“I’m so, so sorry for your loss, young one.”
Dinky looked down, not meeting Celestia’s eyes. The filly sniffled as tears began to come forth once again. However, much to Dinky’s surprise, she suddenly found herself in the alicorn’s embrace. She wanted to squirm and fight against it, but she was too tired and too sad and she felt so warm and comfortable against Celestia’s fur. Letting out a sob, she returned the hug, letting her tears flow freely. The Solar Princess simply stroked her head with a hoof, content to let the filly cry.
Much, much later, she eventually felt Dinky’s grip on her loosen slightly. Looking down, Celestia saw the filly’s eyes were closed and her breathing had calmed down. She wasn't really sure how much time had passed, but it seemed Dinky had cried herself into a slumber, still clutching at her barrel. Sighing, she looked over at the bodies of Steve and Derpy sitting against the wall.
“How can one so young, have such terrible nightmares?” She spoke softly.
“I, don’t know, Princess. I just, don’t know.” Aura spoke with a defeated sigh. “Frankly speaking, I think that will give me nightmares now.” She gestured to the scene with a hoof.
“C'mon, we should get her out of here. If she wakes up to see, them, again, it won’t be pretty.” Abyss spoke.
Celestia sighed. “While I agree, the door hasn’t yet shown up. So, instead I suggest we move to…”
BING!!
The Solar Princess was interrupted by the familiar noise. Moments later, the door showed up, just as it always did. Sighing in relief, Celestia gently picked up the filly in her magic before placing her on her back. Trotting over to the door, she opened it and stepped through, soon enveloped by the darkness. Everyone else followed.
* * * * *
Steve gently brought his head up to look at the mare in his arms. Her face, despite the cuts and bruises that littered it, looked strangely peaceful. Steve grit his teeth as tears trailed down his cheeks. Pressing his face against her chest, he let out a slightly-repressed sob.
“I’m sorry Derpy. I’m so, so sorry.”
For a short time, no more than a minute, there was no sound in the alley, except the sound of Steve’s sobs. His two companions stood a few feet behind him. Glancing at Dash with a downcast expression, Trench slowly made his way forward stopping just behind the sorrowful Crafter. Lifting a hoof, he gently patted Steve’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry Steve.”
The Crafter let out a shuddering sob, then spoke. “I-is there a-anything we can do? To help her?”
Trench didn’t speak for a moment, appearing to be deep in thought. After a few moments, a large smirk made its way onto his face.
“Maybe there is.” The stallion’s words made Steve glance back at him in confusion. Before he could ask, Trench whirled around to face Dash. “Dash, I need you to get a thundercloud! Make sure it’s a decent size and not too unstable!” Though confused, the prismatic mare swiftly saluted the general and took off.
“What do you need a thundercloud for?” Steve asked.
“A friend of mine taught me how to do this a few years ago, as a last resort.” Taking Derpy into his hooves, he began looking over her chest area. After a few seconds of searching, he sighed in relief. “Good, there seems to be no wound over her heart. Hopefully it’s undamaged.” He looked up at Steve. “If I do this correctly, the lightning from the thundercloud will act as a unicorn defibrillator and restart her heart.”
Steve’s eyes widened. “A lightning strike! Are you insane!? That’s too dangerous!”
Trench shook his head. “Not if Dash can regulate the amount discharged. With the proper amount, the electricity won’t harm her, it’ll actually jumpstart her and bring her back. But we have to do it quickly. If I remember correctly, once ten minutes had passed, it’s too late. We’ve wasted enough time as it is.” Just as he said this, Dash returned, hooves pushing a black cloud. Small arcs of electricity sparked along its surface.
“Got your thundercloud!” She called out.
“Great! Quick, rip off a chunk and bring it over here!” Dash nodded and pulled a sizable piece of the cloud off before moving it to float over Derpy’s body. “On my mark, buck the cloud! Steve, be ready.”
“Ready for wha…?”
“Now!” Trench yelled. Dash bucked the cloud, sending a small bolt of lightning straight into Derpy’s chest. She jolted heavily, then went still. Trench put his head to her chest, listened for a few seconds, then pulled back.
“Again!” He shouted. Another bolt of lightning, another jolt, but no change. “C’mon, again!” Dash bucked it again, sending another bolt of lightning into her chest. Leaning forward, he placed his head against her chest, only to groan in frustration. Looking around, he saw his spear laying on the ground from where he’d thrown it. Quickly grabbing it, he broke the tip off the shaft and held the spearhead just centimeters above where Derpy’s heart was with his hooves, pointed end down. “Wake up dammit!! C’mon, again!!”
Steve’s eyes widened while Dash shook her head, teeth grit. “Trench, get out of the way!! You’ll…!”
“DO IT!!” He roared. Yelping, Dash instinctively bucked the cloud. What occurred next happened almost in slow motion.
The lightning traveled down from the cloud, only instead of hitting Derpy, it struck the spearhead in Trench’s grip. For a millisecond, the piece of metal glowed blue. Then the electricity shot out and struck Derpy’s chest, not as a crooked arc, but as one straight beam. The next thing Steve knew, Trench let out a cry of pain as he was blown backwards, slamming into a nearby wall and falling to the floor face-down.
“Trench!” Steve cried out, running to the injured stallion. Kneeling down beside him, Steve reached out a hand and rolled him over. As he did so, Trench let out a groan of pain, signifying he was, in fact, still alive.
“Ugh, yeah. That really hurt.” He muttered, eyes squinted in pain. Steve let out a sigh of relief.
“Well no shit. What did you think was gonna happen?” Steve retorted. Trench sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
“I was hoping that if we could concentrate the electricity on one spot using the spearhead, then maybe it would…”
Dash’s voice into their conversation. “Uh, Steve? Trench?”
Steve looked up. “What is… it…?” His eyes widened in disbelief. Blinking, he rubbed his eyes, just to make sure he was actually seeing what he was seeing. Fortunately, it seemed that he wasn’t hallucinating.
Derpy’s body was moving. It wasn’t very much, but Steve could make out the gentle rising and falling of her chest. She was breathing. She was alive. Steve’s eyes began to fill up with tears as he slowly walked over to her, falling to his knees. Just to prove it to himself once more, he placed his ear against her chest.
Ba-bump.
Ba-bump.
Ba-bump.
Sitting back, he let out a breath he didn’t even know he had been holding. Rubbing his face with a hand, he brushed away the tears that had accumulated on his cheeks. Gently picking her up, he hugged her close against him, doing his best to be careful with her. Hearing the sound of hooves approaching, he glanced to the side and saw Trench and Dash standing there, smiles on their faces. He smiled back.
“Thank you. Both of you.”
Thank you for reading and be sure to let me know what you all think in the comments!
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9635673
I have reached the moment all authors aspire to reach. Where people like their story enough to the point they will comment "First".
Thank you.
I just binge-read the entire thing in less than an hour and now my vision is all blurry... Excellent work, mate!
9635673
I'm
THIRD
9635855
Fixed
9635878
Ok 4th
Derpy is alive!!!! You shall live... for now.
Well, the ending of this chapter was rather... "shocking"
9636069
Oh. My. Gosh. That, was a wonderful pun, thank you.
yes
All possessives (except for its) always have an apostrophe before the s (only in the English language as far as I know).
Remove the apostrophe and you have the word in plural form (though some words have a unique plural form).
9636635
I know, I just have so much trouble with them when I'm writing. Thank you for pointing that out though.
9636662
Always happy to help
9635677
*Bing*
wow a truly amazing chapter.
OH YEAH, DERPY IS ALIIIIIVE! Can't wait for the next chapter - and possible showdown with Herobrine... but what happened to the minotaur and dragon of the mercenary group
9636662
9636635
Except for if the word ends with an S anyway, then the apostrophe is after the S.
"Rico's tuba was crushed"
"Ross' tuba was crushed."
9638093
I knew of that rule, but completely forgot to mention it!
Thanks!
I love this book so much. The story is amazing, and so are the characters. From this moment forward, I have dedicated my life to stalking your page.
9639632
Thank you! Always good to see someone who likes my story!
Expect the next chapter later tonight, or tommorrow.
9639712
SO EXCITED!!! *cough* I am looking forward to that and will try to be the first ones to read it
alright, alright...
I no longer feel the need to find and torture the author for killing derpy.
Sorry but i cant bring myself to read any more of this. The grammar is good but the characters are so... bad. They are simply bad. And the story is twisted in some disgusting unatural way to make these characters make sense that i just cant anymore. Its got a good premise. What with evil Herobrine twisting ponies and daybreaker and all that. But the Dash thing and all the missunderstandings that are simply STUPID. I. Cant. Like. Or. Read. This. Story. Any. MORE!
I am writing this on my phone btw so forgive my bad grammar and shi- stuff.
Yusss the adorable grey potato lives!
9682899
Yes!
Hey, this time I heard Kickstart My Heart by Mötley Crüe.
... You get to live another day.
Colder, you're bundled up
9638093
“That’s why we can’t have nice things Rico!”