A Crafter's Dream Ch. 49: Making Amends (Part 2)
Now, without further ado, I present,
“A Crafter’s Dream”
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Steve stood silently, staring at the mess of bandages and blue fur that lay on the hospital bed in front of him. His eyes, normally deep indigo in color, now appeared to be more gray in color. His arms hung by his sides, fists clenched.
Red Heart glanced over at the silent Crafter for a moment before letting out a small sigh as she walked over to her charge. Lifting up her clipboard, she took a few quick notes about Rainbow Dash’s condition as well as checking her bandages before deeming everything was alright. Leaving the clipboard on a nearby desk, she slowly trotted over to Steve, who’s gaze hadn’t left the pegasus since he’d walked in.
“I, I’ll give you two some time alone.” She spoke, voice soft. Steve merely nodded in response. Sighing, she made her way out of the room, the door creaking slightly as it closed behind her. After that, silence filled the room once more.
Steve wasn’t sure how long he stood there. It felt like hours before he finally steeled his nerves enough to make his way over to Dash. Standing next to the bed she was laying on, he winced as he looked over her comatose form.
While most her was still covered by bandages, what wasn’t sheltered from sight didn’t seem to be faring much better. Fur was missing from some places, revealing the peach-colored skin beneath. A few scars could be seen, crisscrossing here and there. The more Steve looked, the more the guilt made his stomach twist and turn.
“I, I’m sorry Rainbow Dash.” He muttered, voice barely above a whisper. Putting out a hand, he gently patted her head, being careful not to touch or jostle the bandages that covered most of her face. Sighing, he lowered his arm as he turned away, head hanging low. Walking over to the entrance of the room, he opened the door with barely a sound, taking one last glance at his friend before closing the door behind him. Sighing once more, he released the door handle and began walking down the hall, footsteps quietly echoing along the tiled floor.
‘It’s not your fault you know.’ Nightmare Steve spoke in his mind, voice soft. Steve didn’t respond, continuing to look down at the floor as he walked. ‘You did everything you could, Steve. You battled through various Nightmares, you took on Herobrine, the god of the night. For crying out loud, you took a sword to the chest and still managed to get back up.’ At this, the Crafter opened his mouth to speak, but Nightmare Steve beat him to it. ‘And yes, Miss Dash was severely wounded during the battle, I will not deny that. But if it weren’t for you, she most likely would’ve died, or worse.’
Steve rubbed a hand against his face as he sighed. ‘I guess. I still feel terrible, though.’
‘Yeah, I know. Remember, I can feel what you feel.’
The Crafter’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. ‘Wait, what? I thought you could only feel pain, like when I get hurt or something.’
‘Steve, we are connected both in body and soul. What you feel, I feel, whether it be pain, trauma, emotions, anything. It’s how Nightmare beings become stronger after all, by feeding on the emotions of their hosts.’
‘Wait, feeding? You eat emotions?’ Steve questioned.
‘Yes, but not in the way you eat physical food. Beings such as me kind of, absorb it from their hosts. While a whole manner of emotions will suffice, we gain much more from negative ones, such as anger, hate, sadness and fear.’
Steve hesitated for a few moments before responding. ‘...You know what, fuck it. I’m in a world of pastel-colored ponies that reside in a country that’s ruled by two Princess’ that move the fucking sun and moon. I just came back from fighting a literal god in some place called the Mindscape, and now I have a Nightmare sharing my body with me that feeds on emotions because that makes sense. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if some reality altering deity showed up to destroy the world and kill everyone.’
‘Ah, I assume you are referring to Discord?’
The Nightmare’s words made Steve stop cold, hand resting frozen on the handle to the door leading out of the hospital. That single name forced a memory to resurface in his head. He remembered Herobrine, dying in the ground. He had mentioned a few names of, assumedly, villains Steve would have to face in the future. One of those names had been Discord. Closing his eyes, the Crafter let out a small, ragged sigh.
‘Discord? Who exactly is that?’
‘He is the god of chaos, mischief incarnate. Many years ago he ruled over Equestria, making it a place of mayhem and disharmony. After a long and fierce battle with Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, he was turned into a stone statue by the Elements of Harmony and placed under guard at Canterlot Castle. As far as I know, he remains there.’
‘Fantastic!’ The Crafter exclaimed in his mind, sarcasm heavy in his tone. ‘Can’t wait for when he inevitably breaks free, since one way or another I’ll more than likely have to fight him.’
‘With all due respect, I do not see us winning that fight. While you are indeed very strong, Discord is far more powerful than you.’
‘So was Herobrine.’ Steve stated firmly. It was a few seconds before the Nightmare responded.
‘Indeed.’
Steve waited for the Nightmare to continue, but after a minute of nothing, he realized his companion wasn’t going to talk. Sighing, he pulled open the door, stepping out into the midday sun. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a kinda choked gasp. He didn’t even have time to look up before something small plowed into him with a cry of “Mr. Steve!!”, knocking him flat on his back.
Groaning, he propped himself up on his elbows to see who exactly had hit him. To his utter shock, there, latched to his chest and sobbing, was Dinky Hooves. Caught off-guard, Steve could only stare at the crying filly with his mouth hanging open.
“Dinky!” A voice cried out, making the Crafter glance upwards to see two other ponies standing only a few feet away.
The first was a young filly, with a dark pink mane and peach colored fur. Her butter-yellow eyes stared at him with a mixture of fear, confusion and wonder.
The second was a mare, with a dark orange mane and a tan coat of fur. On her flank was an image of a bushel of carrots. Her lime green eyes were wide with what looked like surprise and wonder. Steve actually recognized her from the carrot stand he’d seen a few times around Ponyville. If he remembered correctly, her name was Carrot Top.
Steve was brought out of his thoughts when Dinky’s cries died down and she spoke.
“Where w-were y-you?” She asked, voice quiet. Looking down at her, Steve’s breath caught in his throat when he saw her tear stained face looking up at him. “I-I waited, just l-like you wanted. I w-waited, and waited b-but you never came back. I t-thought something h-happ-ppened. W-when I woke up, I, I thought you would come back. You, you would come back and check o-on us. To make sure we were a-alright. But y-you never came.” She buried her face into his chest. “I thought you had died.” That last sentence came out as little more than a whisper, making Steve’s stomach plummet.
“I,” Steve hesitated. “I’m sorry Dinky. I wanted to come back, trust me, I did. But I got hurt pretty bad. Luckily, the doctors and nurses up in Canterlot Hospital took care of me.”
“Huh?” Dinky asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Why were you in Canterlot?”
“Long story. Not to worry, I’ll explain later, okay?”
Sniff, Sniff. “Okay.” She agreed, nodding her head with a small smile.
“Um, Dinky honey?” The mare spoke, garnering both Steve and Dinky’s attention. “Would you mind introducing me to your friend?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m kinda confused.” The filly spoke in agreement.
“Oh yeah, I forgot.” Climbing down from Steve’s chest, the filly sat down on the ground. “Mr. Steve, this is Ms. Carrot Top, mommy’s friend. Ms. Carrot Top, this is Mr. Steve, both mine and mommy’s friend. Berry Pinch, this is my friend Mr. Steve.”
Carrot Top stared at Dinky for a few moments before looking at Steve, a look of realization on her face. “Wait a minute. You mean you’re Steve, as in the Steve that defeated three dozen Royal Guards without breaking a sweat? All to save a wrongly accused friend that was being threatened with rape?”
Steve looked at her, confusion evident on his face. “How did you…?”
“Derpy told me a few days after it happened. I insisted that she take it to the Crown, but she didn’t, for whatever reason.”
“She was worried that taking the issue to the Princess would only make things worse.” Steve spoke, voice soft. “And honestly, I don’t blame her for thinking that.”
Carrot Top raised an eyebrow, displaying her confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Well, think about it from her perspective. The Royal Guard is supposed to protect the citizens of Equestria. But instead, they arrest her, hurt her and threaten her with rape in order to get information. It’s totally understandable that she wasn’t too trusting at the time.”
The mare mulled it over for a few moments before sighing and nodding her head. “Yes, I suppose that makes sense.”
“Yeah.” There was silence for a few moments before Steve spoke again. “Hey Dinky?” The filly looked up at him with a curious gaze. “How is your mom doing? I haven’t seen her since, well, you know.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Dinky’s eyes darkened, and she looked away. This single motion made Steve’s insides twist. The smile on his face disappeared, replaced by a look of apprehension.
“Um, well she’s, uh…” The filly stumbled over her words, each word making his stomach clench more and more.
“She's been acting very strange for a few days.” Carrot Top butted in, seeing that the filly was having trouble. Steve looked up at her, confusion and worry evident on his face.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she's been acting weird. She barely goes outside anymore, except for shopping or for her job. And whenever she sees a Royal Guard, she runs the other direction.” She sighed, putting a hoof to her face as she did so. “I’ve tried asking her what happened, but, unfortunately, no dice.”
“I know what happened.” Steve muttered, shaking his head sadly.
“Wait, you do?” Carrot asked, a hint of eagerness in her tone. The Crafter nodded. “Well, what happened?”
“Well, it’s a bit of a long story, so listen up, please.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “Well, it all started on the day of The Running of the Leaves…”
*Roughly an hour and a half later*
“After that, we went to Ponyville’s library, where I heard from Spike that Rainbow Dash was in the hospital. I decided to visit her, you know, to check up on her. On my way out, I ran into you guys, and well, you know the rest.”
“Whoa.” Carrot Top spoke, eyes wide. “That sounds, intense.”
“And trust me, it was. Very much so. But anyways, that’s why she’s like that. She very nearly died at the hands, er, rather hooves, of someone she feared to her very core. She lived, luckily, but only barely, which probably traumatized her, from what you’ve told me.”
“Yeah. That makes sense.” Carrot Top rubbed the back of her head. “I just, that sounds like the stuff you read about in stories and such, not the kind of stuff that actually happens in real life.”
“Yeah, I guess so. But, after a while, you get used to…”
‘Steve, an unknown magical aura has locked onto our position.’ Nightmare Steve suddenly spoke, causing the Crafter to shoot to his feet as he looked around.
“What’s wrong Steve?” Dinky asked, tone worried. He glanced down to see the two fillies and mare looking at him with concern.
“I don’t know. I think…?” Suddenly, Steve’s vision darkened and he felt a familiar tugging sensation in his gut. There was a big flash, and he suddenly found himself back in the Ponyville Library, bookshelves full of books lining the walls.
“What the…?” He began.
“Hello.” Spoke a dreadingly familiar voice. Whirling around, Steve’s eyes widened in shock.
Princess Luna glared at the Crafter, horn glowing a midnight blue. Next to her stood Princess Celestia, who had a rather irritated look on her face as she glared at her sister. Trench and Sure Shot were nowhere to be found.
“How about thou and I have a chat?”
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bugger
Steve my man punch Luna as hard as you can and tell her that is what she deserves
A horse gets is a broken nose is a lot more serious than a humans, they bleed like crazy.
9764737
This version does at least...
"Oh you f*ckin' b*tch you did not,"
"The bloody bastard's just fought a god, the same bastard fucked Nightmare Moon and she was more powerful than Ms.Luneytoon'll ever be. I would highly reccomend she f*ck off."
Why do I get the sinking feeling that Luna will only make things worse the moment she hears that Steve has a Nightmare inside him?
Wait that was you, when I saw that story on the featured list, I had an itch like this story was oddly familiar, I didn't look who wrote it so, finding it that you wrote it is bit of a shock
Well, small blessings I guess. Hopefully Celestia will keep things from getting too out of hand.
Oml thank you for the chapter good sir
Casually leans on the fourth wall.
9760270
To be honest, Herobrine is considered as a Creepypsata ever since the famous quote "Herobrine is removed" and the story about him and his leafless trees, 4 x 4 cave, sand pyramids and maybe more that I forgot about him. I wouldn't be suprised to see these two appear here. Heck! Entity 303 was part of Herobrine's warning on who Steve should watch out for. But that only happens if the Author planned it that way :).
9764905
She's probably still pissed off. Eventhough the situation was explained, she's still pissed. At the least, she is talking rather than strangling so that's a good sign, maybe? :/
An shit. I'd tell her its gotta wait for a few cause he's gotta go check on Derpy. She can follow all she damn well pleases. She just needs to stay out the fucking way.
9765041
Heck yeah!
9764747
Really? That's perfect if the situation goes sour. Muahahah!
9765111
truth is indirectly it is Steve's fault had he not come to Equestria Herobrine would never have come
Keep up the good work my dude!
9765498
I don't know myself. I know she's pissed, the only problem is that it can be a number of reasons. To me it's probably a pride thing or an anger thing, those two emotions can be hard to let go for some time. Or maybe your right and that she knows Nightmare Steve is inside Steve when Celestia explained the situation to her. *shrug*
/effect Steve speed 1000000 255
👍
9765603
"Well, you know what they say, 'It's surprisingly easy to rape a horse once you tie up the legs.'
9766335
I thought it's the other way around
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
/give steve minecraft: command_block
That way Steve can choose his own commands (it's probably op tho) :)
9766495
"..."
"Oh no."
9764905
Or she's upset that she royally screwed up and big sis gave her The Lecture about being an idiot. Pride without wisdom to temper it is arrogance and arrogant people tend to have a hard time admitting when they're wrong.
I still say a few centuries of being demoted to scullery maid would fix that attitude faster than a whooping though...
9766990
Oof
9766863
Oof
9766496
You do not have permission to use this command!
9767356
w you Solid Twilight! It's called simple and very effective!
Sc
Roll the dice of fate!...it will stop any minute now...i'm going back to sleep
Translation:
Great chapter hope to see more soon
9767925
A combination of building straight up and using his fishing rod, which can act as a grappling hook. It's not directly stated in the story because I didn't think it really mattered that much.
Hopeful luna and steve start to become friends along with the mane 5
9765729
*Sonic X theme intensifies*
/effect Rainbow_Dash Regeneration 1000000 255
*Cuts down Everfree Forest*
*Kills ponies for leather*
*Builds portal to Tartarus*
*Mines Twilight's castle down*
*Uses her books for enchantments*
*Gets killed by Celestia*
*Respawns*
*Shoots down Spike and ends the game*
9768494
Well,
That's dark. Not sure if Steve would ever go that far, even if the whole world was against him. But, cool idea, nonetheless.
9767965
OwO
Curse you and your cliff hangers!
What about the condition of her wings? If I recall from last chapter, Red Heart mentioned she may never fly again. So where is the detail about her wings?
9768759
I know, but it's still sad :(
9769712
Green Steve?
9768494
Why Spike?! WHY!!!
9767952
Hopefully*
Also agreed :)
9769754
Thanks, i am a bad grimmer/speller at times.
9769773
grammar*
Also, your welcome :)
...perfection
Oh God damn it Luna, I swear.you are.just LOOKING for a beating and in all honesty I don't think Celestia would stop him at this point.
So is Steve going with the Nuclear option regarding Luna now?
9775719
Hey, good to see you're back!
I read your comment (obviously) and honestly, I agree with you. I was re-reading over some of my old chapters and honestly, they could really do with some fixing up. But, I don't want to do that because then I feel like I'll only make more mistakes. Not only that, but future chapters will have to be put on hold for a while because school is starting back up and my friends want me to hang out with them and DnD Fridays take up a lot of time and sdjcbdj sjinnsejsjsndisjwnekdjdnekwjenn!!!!
Honestly, I just want to take a break. But at the same time, I want to keep writing because I want to share my story with you wonderful people but I don't want to do that if the story isn't very good to begin with and you would think that after five FUCKING YEARS of planning I would have the storyline more thought out, but NO!! I don't, because I have the work ethic of a FUCKING THUMBTACK!!!!
*sigh* Sorry, sorry. I'm not mad at you, Detsella, I'm just ranting. Sorry.
Honestly, I'm getting burnt out here. Like you said in your other comment, most of the writers only motivation is money, but I don't have that, nor do I plan on ever making money from this story or any other I write. I thought I could do this all on my own, but I guess I was wrong, huh?
I don't know. I, just don't.
9775794
The last thing I want to do is make you discouraged.
Sure, there are some issues, but that doesn't mean I still didn't really enjoy them. This story is still in my favorites for a reason.
And I always know that when I read back at my old stories, or even just the start of ongoing ones, there are plenty of parts I wish I had the time to rework.
Sure, the outline thing is great before you start a story, but for ones I didn't start out doing that for? I don't bother with it, unless I'm showing signs that I might end up abandoning it.
Lack of time is definitely the worst. I mean, for myself, even though I have probably the most free time out of anyone (mostly due to medical issues keeping me from work, hopefully that will be fixed soon), and almost no friends to speak of that aren't online (for the same reasons), writing takes up a lot of time. And combined with other artistic pursuits, I have to ration out what I do when in order to even have a semblance of good writing output.
Taking a break is just fine, too. I do that periodically, and it often helps, since a lot of my inspiration comes from constant daydreaming and creating scenarios in my head (which does not function well under pressure). As long as the break isn't so long that the ideas run so many times that they become boring to you. (Mostly just talking about myself here, different people have different methods.)
The most important thing here isn't that you might be keeping fans waiting. It's your mental health. I'm not talking about disorders or anything, just normal frustration, socialization, that sort of thing. A lot of writers pause/slow down for school, and I doubt anybody in this fandom has the right to tell you to not have fun with your friends.
If you want to know my advice, I'd just continue on with the story, rather than editing earlier stuff just yet. It's good enough stuff. And if you need an editor, or even just someone to outsource looking over the old stuff if you really want to do that first, just ask. One of my hobbies is prereading and editing for people (though I still make my own mistakes). I enjoy making people happy by writing my stories, and I have just the same satisfaction helping people out with editing work. If you no longer think you can do this on your own, don't.
At the same time, if you just want a break for a while, take it.
That's the way I