A Crafter's Dream Ch. 42: Aftermath
Now, without further ado, I present,
“A Crafter’s Dream”
Steve stared at the nurse and guards with an expression of utter confusion. “Canterlot? You mean, capital of Equestria, Canterlot?” The nurse and guards silently nodded. “But that doesn’t make any sense. I should be in the Everfree forest right now.”
One of the guards answered. “You were in the forest. It was the remaining members of the Black Claw, Sir Nog and Thorn, that brought you in. You had,” The guard looked down at a piece of paper in his hoof. “severe bruising, numerous lacerations, multiple cracked ribs and a bit-sized hole in your chest. You actually healed surprisingly fast, all things considered. Usually wounds like that take weeks to heal, not four days.”
The Crafter nodded. “Yeah, thank Notch for enhanced regeneration.” His eyebrows furrowed in worry. “Wait, remaining members? What happened to Aura and Rizworth?”
“Aura Blackhoof and Rizworth Ironfeather were brought in along with you. Rizworth was suffering from a severe concussion, a broken leg and three cracked ribs. Aura had a fractured humerus in her right wing, along with severe bruising.”
“So they’re still alive?” Steve asked. The nurse nodded.
“Yes, though Miss Aura has been put in an induced coma until her wing heals, as wing injuries require more care than normal. Sir Rizworth woke up yesterday, but he has been confined to bed for the next two weeks.”
Steve let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good. What about your Princess, Celestia?”
Neither of the guards spoke, and the nurse had suddenly become very interested in the floor, eyes refusing to meet his gaze. The Crafter’s eyebrows furrowed.
“What happened to her?”
“I’m afraid that information is classified, sir. Ordered by Princess Luna for the safety of Equestria.” One of the guards spoke. Steve opened his mouth to argue, but quickly shut it after realizing that he probably wouldn’t get anywhere. These guards were loyal, at least from what he’s seen, so arguing would be pointless. Sighing, he moved to sit up, but was hampered by the handcuffs around his wrists.
“Oi.” He shook his restraints a little while looking at the guards. “Can I get these off?”
The guards both shook their heads simultaneously. “Sorry sir, but as long as you are in Canterlot, you must be restrained at all times. By order of Princess Luna.”
Steve sighed and laid back in the bed. “Figures. Can you at least tell me how the Princess is doing? Celestia, I mean. Luna can suck it.”
The guards seemed hesitant, but one of them eventually responded after a few moments. “I’m told she is recovering well.”
Steve gave a relieved sigh. “That’s good. From what I’ve heard, your species kinda depends on her, to some extent.” He glanced over at the three ponies with a raised eyebrow. “Anyways, I’m assuming you three came in here for more than just small talk.”
The guard on the left shook his head. “No. We were merely supposed to accompany Nurse First Aid in here so she could check up on your progress, but seeing as you are awake, that will be not be necessary. We will take our leave now.” With that, both guards and the nurse swiftly left the room, leaving the Crafter by his lonesome.
Steve waited for a few minutes. Then he waited a little more. Once he was absolutely sure there wasn’t anyone outside the door, he immediately pulled against his restraints, testing their strength. Just as before, he found himself unable to break himself free. Ceasing his efforts, he laid back in his bed. Glancing up, he looked around the room, trying to find a way to break out. Eventually, his gaze landed on the sole window in the room. A lightbulb went off in his head as a grin made its way onto his face.
Looking over at the door for a moment, Steve laid back down, readying himself before throwing himself upwards with all of his strength, causing the bed he was laying on to jump upwards a few inches. Smirking, he repeated the action multiple times until he eventually made his way over to the window.
While his arms were restrained, the ponies had made the mistake of leaving his legs free. Taking advantage of that fact, he brought his legs up and kicked the very bottom of the window with his feet, causing it to shudder. His plan was to knock the entire window frame out instead of simply breaking the glass, since this would make escaping much easier for him. Gritting his teeth, he kicked again and again. Once, twice, three more times.
Eventually, the window couldn’t take it anymore and was knocked free from the frame, falling somewhere outside. Grinning in victory, he used the same jumping method to turn himself so he was side by side with the opening in the wall. Reaching over as far as he could, his hand barely managed to grip the edge. Taking a deep breath, he adjusted his grip slightly for a better hold.
“I sure hope this works.” Steve muttered to himself. Throwing himself upwards, he came up a short distance from the ground, but fell back to the floor with a heavy clank. Gritting his teeth, he tried again, only to fall back down again. Growling, he tried once more, throwing himself upwards with every ounce of strength in his body. Clenching the fist that held the window sill, he eventually made it halfway out, his body, still restrained to the bed, rolling over so that his chest was pressed down against on the frame. Scooting over a bit, he poked his head out to look around, only for his grin to fade when he saw he was quite a ways from the ground, probably a good thirty feet.
When he realized what he would have to do, he let out a groan at the pain he would undoubtedly feel. Taking a moment to steel his nerves, he took a deep breath, then rolled out the window.
* * * * *
General Trench was pissed. And for the normally calm stallion, that was saying something. His eyebrows were furrowed as he glared ahead at nothing, armored hooves stomping on the ground out of frustration, making a clunking noise with every step that echoed through the empty courtyard.
“Um, excuse me for asking this sir, but what’s got you so angry?” Well, empty save for one other pony. Glancing behind him, he saw a single pegasus guard following behind him. He quickly recognized the stallion as Lieutenant Rocker.
Sighing, Trench shook his head. “Nothing Lieutenant, just frustrated.”
“About what, if I may ask?” Rocker inquired.
Trench hesitated for a moment, but responded. “Princess Luna refuses to listen to me about Steve. She’s adamant that he is some great threat to Equestria, when in reality, he’s just misunderstood!”
“Well, you gotta admit, he has a significant body count. That coupled with what happened to Princess Celestia, and I can understand why she’s wary.” Rocker reasoned.
“Yeah, but how many deaths has he caused? Zero! He hasn’t killed a single pony, whether it be a guard or civilian. Besides, what happened to the Princess wasn’t his fault, it was…?”
CRASH!!
Both general and lieutenant jumped when they heard the sound of a loud crash. Snapping their head to the side, their gazes were met by the sight of a shattered window lying on the stone floor.
“What the hay?! Where did that window come from?!” Rocker questioned. The lieutenant looked around for some culprit, but the courtyard was empty save for the two stallions.
Trench shook his head. “I don’t know. Wait here.” With that, the stallion slowly approached the scene. However, a few moments later, the general would be glad he hadn’t gotten too close.
“FUUUUUUUUU!!!” CRASH!!
Something big and loud crashed down on top of the window only seconds later, causing both Trench and Rocker to jump back in surprise. There was the horrible sound of metal breaking as whatever it was imploded in on itself, bits of debris flying outwards.
Staring at the wreckage in shock and confusion, the two stallions didn’t have the chance to move before a single, fleshy hand reached out and gripped the floor, followed by another. A few moments later, there was an audible grunt, then someone pulled themselves from the remains of what appeared to be a hospital bed.
Trench’s eyes widened when he recognized who it was. “Steve?”
Turning around, the Crafter's eyes widened as he saw the gold-armored stallion a few feet from him, a smile appearing on his lips. “Trench! Glad to see you're okay, dude!”
“Yeah, good to see you too. But I have to ask, what the buck just happened?” Trench inquired, expression displaying his confusion.
Steve shrugged. “I woke up a little while ago, handcuffed to my bed. I talked to these two guards, and found out that Luna ordered that I have to be restrained as long as I’m in Canterlot. Obviously that didn’t sit too well with me, so I pulled a little jailbreak.” He stretched and Trench winced a bit when he heard a loud popping noise. Steve let put a small groan. “Two things I learned. One, enchanted handcuffs can take quite a beating before they break. And two, falling thirty feet straight down hurts a lot more if you land back first.”
Trench blanched. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“Uhhhhh…” The new voice garnered both Steve and Trench’s attention to Rocker, who stared as the Crafter with his jaw agape. Sweat was forming on his brow, and his entire body was visibly tense.
“Hey Trench, who’s this?” Steve asked gesturing to the guard.
“This is Lieutenant Rocker. Rocker, this is Steve.”
The Crafter grinned and put out a hand. “Cool. Nice to meet you Lieutenant.” Rocker didn’t register the action, eyes focused solely on Steve's face. After a few moments, the stallion’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out, landing with a loud Clunk! on the floor. Grin turning sheepish, Steve let out a small chuckle as he rubbed the back of his head. “Well that’s a new one.”
Trench sighed and face-hooved, muttering to himself. “For buck’s sake, you’re a lieutenant Rocker. You’re supposed to be better than this.” Letting out a groan, he grabbed the unconscious stallion before pulling him over and sitting him up against the wall.
“He gonna be alright?” Steve asked from behind him.
Trench nodded. “Yeah, he’ll be fine. Probably just overwhelmed from meeting you face-to-face. You’re kinda notorious among the guards from how many....” Trench hesitated. “Well, from how many of them you put in the hospital.” The stallion glanced over at the Crafter to see the downcast expression on his face.
“Sorry. About them, I mean.” Steve muttered quietly.
Trench shook his head. “It’s not your fault Steve. We attacked you first, and you defended yourself accordingly. Not only that, but you never once actually killed any of my guards, despite having many opportunities to do so. I couldn’t blame you even if I wanted to.”
The Crafter’s dismal expression lifted and he gave a small smile. “Thanks man.”
“No problem. Least I can do, considering what you did for all of us in the Mindscape and all.”
“Oh yeah, speaking of which, how are you doing?” Steve asked, looking Trench over. “From what I remember, you were pretty hurt in the fight against Herobrine, but you seem fine now.”
“Oh. Well, I woke up in Ponyville General Hospital a few days ago. Luckily, my injuries weren’t very serious, mostly superficial, so I was discharged two days ago, under oath to Nurse Redheart to take it easy for a week. I came to Canterlot this morning because I caught wind of the situation with you.”
Steve quirked an eyebrow as he frowned. “What situation?”
Trench hesitated for a moment before responding. “Princess Luna wants to put you on trial.”
Steve’s mouth dropped open as he gained an expression of disbelief. “On trial!? For what!?”
“Hostility against Equestrian kind, multiple assault and battery charges, and conspiring to kill royalty.” Trench answered, his tone and expression grim. Steve stood stock still for a moment, before he groaned and fell back against the wall, rubbing a hand against his face. Dropping his arm to his side, he gave the stallion a serious look.
“Let me ask you this, Trench. If she were to put me on trial, and win, what would happen to me?”
Trench shrugged his shoulders. “If it were any of these charges by themselves, you would get some serious prison time, the amount of time depending on the charge. But with all three put together,” Trench shook his head before looking at Steve with a sorrowful expression.
“You’re looking at a death penalty, Steve.”
Silence overtook the duo.
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Wow. So much convincing on everyone's part to spare Steve and give him a different sentence. It's still Rainbow Dash's fault for starting the whole thing.
Welp, time to sod off to the badlands then, get a nice underground run going.
Damn cliffhangers.
This story is great so far, keep up the good work
This would not look good for Luna at the end of it no matter what she says
I can't blame Luna in this case, She is only running with half a story and worry for her sister is blinding her judgement. I wish Shining or Cadance were in Canterlot as both could pull rank due to how close she is to the case.
Trench I advise you to Resign and help Steve get out of Equestria until Celestia wakes up, maybe take Derpy, Dinky and Auroa with you so Luna can't use them to get to you two.
Steve can't seem to catch a break, eh?
9662284
Dude chill a little
While her actions are understandable given the incomplete story she has to work off of, I REALLY hope Luna waits until Celestia is awake before anything official happens.
well sugar honey iced tea this is not going at all how i expected. great chapter
An honest and fair trial with the whole story told in public would actually be a good thing for Steve. His name would be cleared, and the ponies who messed up either on their own or under Herobrine's influence would have everything put on the table and examined, to see how things could have been handled better.
I'm not really expecting Luna to be fair though, based on their previous interactions. Her ego is engaged and she's made up her bigoted mind already.
I'll repeat what Rep. Lindsey Graham said in a hearing, only with a small change:
"Princess Luna is a fucking moron!"
I mean, wasn't she inside Celestia's dream world while her sister was a tyrant?! After Celestia returned to normal, Luna just vanished, leading me to believe that Luna understand that Steve and Abyss was there trying to save Celestia, not kill her!
9663364
No, that Luna was a construct of Celestia's dream, just like Shining Armor and the rest. Luna herself actually couldn't enter any of their dreams for a few reasons that will be explained later.
Fun fact because my mind cannot sit still:
30 feet translates to a little over 9 meters. Given minecraft physics, Steve receives half a heart of damage for a 4 meter drop (if each block is technically 1 meter) plus another half for each additional meter. So, that chalks up to upwards of 3 hearts of damage. Not too bad, but enough to put Steve in a bad mood. My goodness, he is very patient considering he didn't lash out at Trench or his lieutenant (maybe that's part of his arc?)
Heh... I'm a egghead.
9662935
I highly doubt that will happen though.
It tends to go like that.
Of course... Steve just can't catch a break. Now we wait, just how much worse is this gonna get before things are finally resolved.
Dammit Luna......
9666071
Yeah, it looks like it'll be one of those stories where everything will get cleared up in the grand finale, and not a second prior.
I think we will not be shown a chapter where Steve is just chillin' with the Equestrians. It'll be this shit right until the end...
I always wandered what sort of people write stories like this. Now I sort of know.
I'm honestly surprised Equestria has the death penalty. I don't imagine a peaceful culture would have used such a thing in a very long time.
10103628
I mean, when you think about it, the Elements of Harmony and their purification trick isn't really all that different from a death sentence. You are, after all, forcing the victims to be good people against their will. Intentions really don't matter, because good and bad are such a mercurial concept that it's impossible for it to be the same thing forever. You're effectively killing them mentally just so you can have a person who is "better".
Physical death and mental death. If I had to choose, I'd take the headsman's ax, thanks.
You don't keep information from me. Mortal.
Differ, judging by the