The Lost Crafter

by Jeffrey1000

Chapter 35: The Same Kind of Different

Author's Note:

And so the story continues…
Next chapter out soon!
And yes I will be back to shorter chapters cause writing 5000 words for one fucks with me a lot.

Steve watched as Luna walked out of town, head hanging low. She wandered away from the town, and across the bridge that led to the forest. He sighed.

“Might as well give it a shot.” He told himself. The crafter wandered down to the bridge and called out from behind Luna. “Luna! Wait up!”

Upon hearing the crafter she stopped. As she turned around, she spoke. “Steve? What doth thou want?”

“I want to help you.” He said.

“Help us? But we-.”

“I don’t really care what you did.” Steve said. “We all make mistakes, fuck up, and overall just make bad decisions. But you shouldn’t dwell on them and feel bad about it. You can still redeem yourself back there.”

“But how? All these villagers are terrified of me. How will I get them to be understanding?” She asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, but I do know what that feels like. Everyone being scared of you for no particular reason.” It took Luna a second, but she realized what he was talking about. “But look at me now. I’m now chill with most of the townsfolk, and everyone just treats me as their friendly neighborhood crafter.”

“How did you do it?” She asked now without her royal Canterlot voice. “I don’t understand, how did you, who’s not even a pony do what I can’t do?”

“Well, first of all, I set the lowest expectations, so that even if I fell, I never gave up. Second, I understood what these ponies would think of me. They don’t see me as an equal to them. They see a more powerful being that they fear. So what I’d do is take myself to a level that would match that of theirs, so they wouldn’t fear me.”

“And how did you do that?” She asked.

“Have you ever had close friends? Like people you could be whoever you want with and they wouldn’t care?”

Luna remained silent. She stood there thinking for what felt like an eternity.

“Luna? Have you…never had any close friends?” Steve asked, hesitantly. Luna lowered her head.

“No.” She spoke solemnly.

“Oh. That sounds…shitty.” Was all Steve could say. Luna gave him a deadpan look.

“Shitty?” She asked, rhetorically. “Feeling completely alone your whole life isn’t shitty, it’s so bucking awful that sometimes I can barely bare to live with my ass.”

Steve stood shocked. He had never heard the Princess talk like that before. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”

Luna sighed. She turned away from Steve and at the river that flowed under the bridge they were standing on. “You’re okay. I just…got a little upset there. I understand that you couldn’t possibly fathom what it’s like to feel that. That was probably just a natural response.”

“I know what that feels like.” Steve said, looking off the bridge too. “I’m the last of my kind remember? I know that it feels like shit. And I know that you have trouble living with that.”

The two stood in silence leaning on the edge of the bridge. They just looked at the water as it flowed by.

“The water is beautiful.” Luna said. “It’s…quite entrancing.”

“I agree. I used to sit on a bridge like this in Minecraftia and fish for hours on end. Occasionally, I’d catch a really big fish or even a dolphin.”

“That sounds relaxing.” Luna said. She had no clue what a dolphin was, but fishing sounded peaceful.

“It was mostly.” Steve told her. He chuckled before continuing. “There was one time, my friend Mitch pulled up this giant dolphin, bigger than anything we’ve ever seen, and the dolphin smacked him across the face, stole all the fish in his bucket, and left. Mitch bet us that he could catch 10 fish in an hour, and he was at nine when the dolphin stole it.”

Luna let out a laugh. “He was one fish away and he lost it all? That’s so tragic but funny.”

“I know right. We couldn’t stop teasing him about it for weeks. He owed us all 10 emeralds after that.”

“I almost feel bad for him.” Luna laughed. “I can imagine whatever deity you guys have just looking down on him, seeing he’s about to catch 10, and saying ‘wouldn’t it be funny if he just didn’t?’ and throwing a dolphin at him.”

Steve had a chuckle at that one. “That’s funny. If that happened to me, I don’t even care if the deity’s real or not, I’m just gonna straight up abandon my faith.”

Luna had a good laugh at that one. In fact, she laughed so good she let out a little snort. Hearing that, Steve laughed even harder which caused Luna to laugh some more. After a few seconds of laughing they were both leaning on each other to keep balance. Eventually, they both caught their breath and stood up straight again. They looked at each other in silence again.

“Y’know I didn’t realize we could get along like this.” Luna said.

“Yeah, it helps that we’re similar.” Steve said. “In different ways, of course. Just the same kind of different.”

“Yeah…same kind of different. Do you think maybe I could try and talk to the townsfolk like that?”

“You might be able to. The adults are mostly fine, and I think I know what we have to do stop the kids from being scared.” Steve told her with a finger to his chin.

“What are you thinking?” Luna asked.

“I think I’m gonna have a word with Twilight.”

…

“Ah the ringleader of all the frightened children.” Luna said as she confronted Pinkie Pie. “Has thou come to make peace?”

She extended her hoof out. Pinkie Pie followed suit. Right before they came into contact a flash of lightning struck behind her, causing Pinkie to jump in fear.

“Nightmare Moon!” She shrieked. Steve looked back at the source of the lightning. Of course it was Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow!” Twilight said as the pegasus continued to laugh her ass off. Steve shook his head in disappointment at her as he and Twilight took off after Pinkie Pie. Fortunately, Twilight teleported in front of the pink mare, and the two collided head on. They rolled for a second before coming to a stop with Twilight on top.

“She’s changed, Pinkie.” Twilight started. “She’s not evil or scary anymore. And she definitely doesn’t gobble you up.”

Pinkie stared up at Twilight in a moment of silence. Then she broke it.

“Well duh.” She spoke with a smile.

“Huh?” Twilight asked, confused.

“I know that. Jeez, Twilight, I’m almost as big as her. How is she gonna gobble me up?”

“So why do you keep running away and screaming?” Twilight asked, annoyed.

“Well sometimes it’s just really fun to be scared!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Fun?” Twilight asked in confusion, before her face morphed into realization. “Pinkie Pie, you’re a genius!”

“No, I’m not. I’m a chicken.”

Steve watched as Twilight sprinted back to Luna, who was sitting next to a building, looking sad.

“Princess Luna! I finally figured out why you’re having so much trouble being liked!” She exclaimed.

“Come with me, I’ll explain everything on the way.” Twilight told her.

…

Steve wandered the through the town at night. All the foals had gone with Zecora to somewhere in the woods. It was all probably part of Twilight’s plan. However, now he wasn’t wondering about her and Luna. He was at the door of a really close friend of his.

“Hey Derpy.” He said, as the door opened.

“Oh Steve! Nice of you to drop by.” She told him.

“Yeah, it’s been a while. How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been good. The days go by pretty quickly with all the work I’ve had to do.” She told him.

“I can relate. Training troops and fighting on the front lines is one thing, but doing all the paperwork I have to do is another completely different challenge in its own.”

“I don’t doubt that.” She laughed. “Are you enjoying Nightmare Night?”

“For the most part. It’s had some issues with Luna, but, other than that, I’ve had a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, I saw her a while ago. She still kinda scared me, but then I remembered you. At first everyone was afraid of you and didn’t wanna even talk to you, but now you’re really well known and well liked around this town. To be fair, you did kind of save it from Discord which helped your reputation, but the point is, you turned yourself around and showed that we all misjudged you. So I decided that I wouldn’t judge Luna right away.”

“That’s…really nice and sweet.” Steve smiled.

“I guess.” Derpy said, shrugging. Steve opened up his arms and she jumped right in.

“Happy Nightmare Night, Derpy.”

“Happy Nightmare Night.”

Comments

[Green-Venom]

Wait, what am I looking at? Wasn't this story done, or am I missing something?

[Jeffrey1000]

11670380
Well I finally got my shit together. And as I said in a different comment and part of my second update I will be filling in the gaps left behind. It’ll prolly be another 30 chapters and I believe in myself. So I’m just gonna go for it. Though it is easy for you to have missed what I said abt finishing this story so I don’t blame you.