> From Grass to Bedrock > by Animatorsnake > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 0/Prologue - They Call Him, Steve > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Overworld, a place that reaches far from all directions, consisting of scorching deserts, tropical jungles, tundras, dense forests, a spiderweb of underground tunnels and ravines, and widespread oceans. Each ecosystem have their various creatures – both friendly and not so friendly – but on a particular grassland, stood a stone wall, made of smooth stone with stone fences on top. Within said perimeter was a fifty by fifty block area, within said area was a medium-sized house, a decently sized farm, stable and a small four block deep pond. A stone pathway was built to the house to the other structures, and to a gateway to exit outside the walled area. The house has two floors and three basements, the main floor has a kitchen and some chests to store food and ingredients to cook with on the right side of the house; a kitchen table was stationed on the left side. Above that floor was the bedroom which had some chests full of personal items, and various other things ranging from armor to weapons. The first basement was a storage area, holding various objects and had an indoor garden, the second basement was less of a basement and more of a railway station, as it had four tunnels that headed to different directions, each having their own cart ready to be used. The final basement was a laboratory, holding potion stands, a cauldron, and some other mystical objects, it was also where the owner and person responsible with building everything within the walls was located. Steve was in the middle of making a potion of healing, the strongest variety he could make, grabbing the required ingredients – first, starting off with a nether wart, cooked from the flames of blaze powder, adding the mixture into bottles of water, then adding a glistening water melon, and finally adding glowstone dust to boost the potion’s properties. Having made any possible combinations of ingredients, Steve made many different potions, whether it be potions he can consume, potions that he can throw to cause a splash effect, or potions that linger longer than a few moments. This sort of trial and error experimentation also involved collecting and searching deadly locations, like the Nether or the End even. So much knowledge gathered also involved a lot of books, Steve has enough books that he himself written to fill a small library, at least one or two stories. Done with making his, fourth, fifth potion of healing, Steve gathered up all his ingredients and put them away in a chest to the side. Turning around, he walked toward a ladder and climbed up before popping up to what appears to be some sort of railway system. Walking over some rails, he climbed up another ladder until reaching a wooden floor that had dozens of chests in it. Opening one of the chests, he placed two of the potions of healing, before keeping the other three on him still. After done putting away his reserve of potions, he climbed up more steps, this time made of wood, and reached the main floor. Here he approached a cold furnace, before searching through a chest that held food ingredients, and pulled out an uncooked piece of porkchop. Popping it into the stove, he put a piece of coal, and let it cook; the sound of meat popping was heard, as well as the crackling of the fire. Stepping away, Steve went upstairs, here he scanned the second floor surroundings, there was his three-wide bed, his armor stands that held armor from leather all the way to diamond, and some chests holding some personal items. The second floor had an interesting carpet and stained glass design both on the ceiling, and on the wall that had the bed facing against it. The design was of three colors – yellow in the middle, light green surrounding the yellow center, and light blue all around both colors. Each of the colors represented four main aspects of the world Steven lives in; yellow for the sun, green for the ground, and blue represented both the sky and the water. The colors themselves represented his world – his home – both the good… and even the bad. His home wasn’t peaceful or safe, but it was home, he couldn’t ask or have it changed any other way. How long has it been since he’s been in this world? Five? Seven? It’s been almost a decade, with each passing day, each passing month, each passing year, something new comes, something changes, secrets within secrets in the smallest details or simply right in the open. ...He couldn’t forget the number of deaths, he went through, some were impressionable upon his soul, whether they were tragic, heroic, or sometimes were complete epic fails, he came back someway or another. Steven isn’t the religious type, but if there is some all-powerful being… well he must be either really lazy or the idea of death doesn’t exist to him. Before going downstairs to check the porkchop, Steve grabbed an empty book and quill. Not hearing the sound of meat cooking anymore looking inside, the porkchop was done cooking; grabbing the cooked porkchop, Steve ate it as he walked to the exit of the house. Outside, the sun was at it’s highest, the farm was brimming with various produce from wheat, carrots, potatoes, and more. In the stable was some farm animals like four chickens and a pair for each, cows, pigs and sheep in their own pen. Another pen had a horse, a mule, and a donkey, each had a name of course; the horse was called Strider, it was black with white splotches. The donkey was gray and called Carl, while the mule was brown called Dern. The stable held some hay bales on a loft for storage; the stable had fence gates that lead within the walled area and outside. Outside was a village that bordered the wall, the ones living there was adequately called Villagers. They don’t speak much or rather they don’t speak in a way he can understand, though some simple gestures seemed to work for them. Life was simple for Steven the Crafter – the Last Crafter – he hasn’t seen hair or hide of any sign of anyone or anything like him. Sure there have been abandoned structures, but none of them showed clues his kind made them. The only theory he had was that he was a one-of-a-kind being, considering he comes back from death… though he’s pretty certain that isn’t normal, considering when he kills an animal or monster, the same one doesn’t pop up. Speaking of monsters, there was a reason he had this area walled-up, it protected him from the creatures of the night. He built a redstone system powered by lunar panels – similar to solar panels, but powered by the moon – which lights up every dark area within the walled zone. Monsters that appear at night or in the darkest corner range from rotting hordes of zombies, bow-wielding skeletons, spiders that climb up any obstacle and even variations that inflict poison, and even green four-legged things called creepers, that sneakily approach you before exploding. There are more monsters, and there appeared to be more and more variations with each passing moment. Steve sighed to himself, after finishing his porkchop, he popped open his empty journal, and wrote down what has occurred for the past week. Mined for ore, found some gold and two diamonds, need more iron to build the altar. Searched south of home, found nothing new or interesting as of yet, will continue to go that way. Need to make potions of water breathing to search that underwater temple, should also find some sponges to soak up water. After done reading, Steve closed it, but kept it in a writable state so he could put down more logs for future dates. Steve didn’t speak… he wasn’t sure he could; taking a deep inhale, Steve try to release a sound, a breath… nothing. Shrugging to himself, speaking didn’t bother Steve, he didn’t need to talk, the Villagers could understand him by just gestures or facial signs. It didn’t change his life, and he liked it, anything new was a happy surprise – though some new changes weren’t helpful at the slightest. Life was fine, and I’m happy with that, whatever may come won’t change anything. At that moment, something changed; without warning, a whirlpool of colors appear before him, a portal. Unlike the End portal or even the Nether portal, this one was swirl of bright colors, it actually hurt to look at it. What caught even more by surprise was the sudden pull he felt, unable to run or stand still, like a powerful stream of water, he was sucked into the portal with an audible pop. The spot he was left no sign he was there, nothing, Steve’s companion and ride, Strider blinked with surprise before looking left and right. Without much of a neigh, the horse snorted and went back to grazing the grass within it’s pen. Elsewhere – Equestria, Ponyville Discord sat atop his throne of chaos, Ponyville was a menagerie of floating buildings, streets made of soap, rabbits as big as giraffes, buffalo wearing tutus. It was beautiful, complete and utter chaos, and Discord loved it, holding a glass of chocolate milk, he could see the group of mares who call themselves the current wielders of the Elements of Harmony. Oh this is going to be fun. Drinking from the glass, instead of the milk being drunk, the glass itself vanished. Left with nothing but a chunk of chocolate milk, Discord tossed it behind him, exploding loudly as smoke filtered up to the sky. “Discord! We are here to stop you, with the powers of the Elements of Harmony, you will return to stone for the next thousand years!” shouted Twilight. Looking at her friends, they prepared to ready the elements and soon be done with this whole fiasco. Before Discord spoke… he felt it, a change in the world, a tiny flicker of chaotic energy… but not his chaotic energy. Well well, seems he’s playing his move now… This should be interesting. “Oh I don’t think so, I may be back to my stony jail cell, but sooner or later, chaos will rain upon your peaceful home… Sooner than you think I believe.” Ignoring his statement, they unleashed the elements at Discord, a beam of rainbow-harmony magic descending on the chortling draconequus. As he slowly turned to stone, his remaining words echoed for any to hear nearby. “Things are about to get crafty,” said Discord, a permanent smirk plastered on his face. With the deed done, the girls stared at the now petrified Discord, he was standing tall, both arms angled to point against his hips. He was smirking as if he accomplished something, but what was really off putting about all of this was he didn’t react at the slightest when he struck with the elements. The girls still stared at Discord, with only Applejack looking at Twilight with a tired smile. “So… what do we do now?” asked Applejack. Twilight still stared at the ‘statue’, but with a sigh she glanced at all her friends, making her way back to the library. “We wait for Princess Celestia to come pick up Discord, for now let’s rest and wait.” Meanwhile – Equestria, Canterlot; Canterlot Castle Noticing the sudden disappearance of Discord’s magical power, and the bright flash of rainbow colors from her balcony, Celestia sighed. She knew her student would send a letter about the incident, but told one of her guards to prepare a small dispatch to Ponyville to check for injured and damages to the town. Hearing several knocks, she shouted to however was at the door to enter, but before she could, the door swung open quietly to reveal a familiar face. Luna was back to her usual self, her mane and fur now darker than the light blue she was first seen to appear, after she was freed of the Nightmare influence by the elements. “Lulu, is something the matter?” asked Celestia. “No, nothing dear sister… we hath heard that he was back… we assume thou used the elements on him, like thou self-” “Luna, remember we discussed before, no using the old speech… it’s somewhat difficult for both our ponies and yourself to understand what you’re trying to say.” Pouting, Luna focused before speaking out in a proper modern tone. “Sorry… As I was trying to convey earlier; you used the elements on him, so with him back in stone, what do you plan next?” “Plan? I don’t have any sort of plans.” This surprised Luna, she assumed her sister who say her own return, planned for the aftermath of what was to come next. “Luna, I understand your worry, but we can’t worry about the past, so for now until whatever may come, comes, we need to focus on the now. I already have guards posted near the gate to Tartarus and even several outposts stationed all over the Frozen North… we’ll be ready, but until then...” Celestia approached her sister, wrapping a wing around her, this calmed down Luna who let out the breath she was holding in. “Let’s go visit Twilight and her friends, I assume they must be exhausted after this tiresome dilemma.” The two sisters left, but what both fail to notice, was the other flash of bright monochromatic light within the depths of a certain forest. Equestria, Ponyville; Golden Oaks Library Everybody was relaxing right now or specifically, the girls were, Spike was preparing some snacks and tea. Pinkie laid down splayed on the floor, Rarity lay down on the couch, Applejack was slumped on the armchair, Fluttershy form sunk into the soft comfy beanie chair, which left Rainbow the only one still active… well, that and the other mare who was busy looking through some books. Now where is that book, I swear I had it shelved here? “Spike, where’s the book on magical anomalies, and their locations? I can’t seem to find it under M!” “It’s in your room remember, you were reading the night before,” said Spike. Oh now I remember. “Thank you Spike!” At that very same moment, everypony heard a loud burp come from the kitchen, Spike soon came out with a scroll with the royal seal on it. Twilight quickly used her magic to receive the scroll, opening it to read its contents. With a quick scan and mutter from Twilight, she looked at her friends with a reassuring smile. “The princess is bringing a small dispatch with her, and Princess Luna is coming too, they said they should be coming soon,” said Twilight. At that moment, they all heard the sound of trotting and carriages landing; stepping outside, the group saw at least twenty or so guards have landed within two to three carriages being lifted by a pair of pegasi each carriage. A fourth carriage which was the royal carriage came around a corner and landed with four pegasi strapped to the carriage. Stepping out was Princesses Celestia and Luna, many of the townsfolk spotted Luna and mutter to themselves, soon a crowd came and saw the royal sisters. Luna while back to her normal self, still shied behind Celestia with a forlorn look on her face. Soon Twilight and company approached, Celestia spotting her pupil quickly approached, hugging her before stepping back. “I see you stopped Discord from spreading his chaotic hold on this town, where is he by the way?” asked Celestia. “He’s this way princess.” Twilight led Celestia to where the town hall was, placed in the middle of the town, now surrounded by guards who kept back any curious ponies back. Discord was still in the pose he was before, with the same smirk, all kept still in his statuesque state. Luna scanned his petrified form, before nodding to her sister; Celestia looked to Twilight and her friends, smiling in congratulations. “Thank you for stopping him, who knows what he could of done if he continued his chaotic plans.” “Plans? Him? He doesn’t look like somebody with a plan,” said Rainbow, scoffing. “Don’t be trick by his… childish demeanor, we have faced against similar scenarios that would break any pony to a sobbing pile,” said Luna. “He can be quite clever if you let that snake tongue of his to be heard.” The girls agreed that out of all the foes they faced… Discord was definitely under the list of oddest; the guards quickly picked him up, ready to put him on a wagon they brought with them back to Canterlot. As they prepared to do so, Celestia did some congratulations for Twilight and her friends here in the middle of town for all to see. Luna watched from the sidelines, trying to make herself as less noticeable as possible, but as she watched the celebration begin… she felt it. Somebody is asleep… but where? It was odd to find somepony to be asleep at this hour, especially with what’s happened here recently, but the being who was asleep seemed to be asleep for only half an hour. “Something wrong Luna?” asked Celestia, returning from congratulating Twilight. Luna faced her sister before facing the direction she assumed where the sleeping denizen was, only for the signs of them to vanish. “Nothing sister… I just thought I felt a nearby sleeper somewhere; are we ready to head back?” “Yes, but before we go, let’s enjoy some of the festivities here, I heard the cupcakes here are delicious.” Luna watched her sister head back to the party, but as she would follow too, Luna gazed where she sense that sleeper was… and gazed at the darkened woods of the Everfree. Hmmmm, just who would sleep in the Everfree of all places? A dragon maybe… no, didn’t feel like a dragon… Deciding to investigate a later date, Luna joined her sister, who was trying to introduce her to one of the Elements of Harmony. Meanwhile – Equestria, Everfree Forest Steve woke up, he wasn’t certain how long he was asleep for, but the moment he woke up, he did what he usually did when waking up in the middle of nowhere with little to no items on him – he scanned his surroundings in a defensive state. Steve wouldn’t stay still when in this mind state, from previous lifetimes, it was important to move in a circular manner in the area he was at. He did this to dodge unseen skeletons, preparing to notch their arrows, or to not be surrounded by a horde of zombies and run at the first sign of an escape. Doing this dance number for several seconds, he paused his pacing, took a 360 look around himself, and relaxed knowing he was safe… well, as safe he could be. He was somewhere unfamiliar, he stood on a patch of grass with only a bit of sunlight beaming down from an open space that wasn’t blocked by branches or leaves… actually, now he paid attention, there was one other detail. Everything wasn’t blocky, there was more detail than gazing at a painting, more detail in creating potion or making an enchanted item, more detail in… everything. It was like somebody flipped the switch and made everything surreal. He looked at himself, and he was fine, nothing odd about his form, same blocky appendages and same blocky face… with the same neutral face. Steve paused to himself, and began to shake, or rather bob in place; this was his way of laughing as he couldn’t speak unless he wanted to sound like some sort of garbled speech. Stopping his laughing, Steve knew immediately what kind of situation he was in – he was in another world. It was odd really, he been to the Nether and End, so it was obvious he was in another world; two reasons he knew and believed this was so. One, he didn’t remember dying at the slightest and he didn’t come back to where he was like his bed or the place he found himself when he first woke in the Overworld… and secondly… He saw the portal, the strange monochromatic portal with the weird light… it was pleasant yes, but portals do not lead to good things unless you’re prepared… and Steve is practically – metaphorically – butt-naked. Checking his personal inventory, he likes to call it his storage space as he seemed to be the only being in his world with this ability, and listed what he had. He only had what he grabbed with him back home; Steve was looking at his inventory in his mind, he could imagine what it looked like. There was a three by nine column and row of space, with the only items there being the three Potions of Healing II he still had on him. Below that inventory was what he called, his tool bar, with the only item there was his journal. He had not armor on, nor did had anything on his other hand. He was starting from scratch all over again… for some reason, this kind of excited him, something new was here and he was starting as he did before back in the Overworld. This is going to be exciting. Pulling out his journal, instead of writing down as logs – since he never kept track of the number of days and nights back home – he would now write down in the number days he been in this world… he never knows how long he be in this world and suddenly be back home, just like that. ...He wonders what it be like to really die if he were to be killed in this world… … … ...Well once it comes to that, he’ll accept what’s to come afterward, it’s not like he’ll see the impossible in this world or anything. With that settled, Steve did the first thing he would like any other new start, he would punch a tree down. > Chapter 1 - Start From Scratch > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equestria, Everfree Forest; Midday Steve approached one of the dark trees within the strange forest, the tree itself was a mix between looking like a dark oak tree, and the spruce tree in color, but in the design… well he was definitely familiar or can compare it to any known tree he knows of. Preparing for what would come next – whether it be broken knuckles or this tree falling over – Steve pulled back his right arm, and punched the tree. ...Nothing, he was fine, with that test over, Steve took his few seconds of punching and took a chunk of the tree off. With a single block of what he now sees is called, “Everfree Log”, the rest of the tree stayed floating like so with little change at the slightest. So, I can still do what I do with zero changes at the slightest. Means that I can make a tower of blocks without issue. Gazing to what patch of the sky he could see, he pointed upward with his right fist and smirked victoriously. HA! BEAT THAT PHYSICS! With that known, Steve spent the past five minutes doing what he does best, collecting resources from his bare fists with tools. After chopping down the single tree with his fists, he turned the logs into planks, then turn those planks into a wooden pickaxe, and proceeded to dig down. The dirt and cobblestone were the same, he did find a vein of coal… a really big vein now that he thinks about it, but he didn’t mind the extra coal. He then made some stone tools, except for a hoe, and chopped down at least four to seven more trees. With two to three stacks of wood, two stacks of cobblestone, some of the dirt he dug – at least sixteen – his stone tools, a stack of torches, half a stack of coal, some sticks,a crafting table and all his original stuff… he was ready. He had two goals right now – well several but these two were at the top of his list – one, he needed to get out of this forest stat, it was miracle no mobs spawned in this pitch darkness… he wasn’t certain if mobs could spawn in this world. So he needed to get out of here fast; the second goal was to find wool to make a bed, with a bed he can change the day-and-night schedule and create his spawn point wherever he slept… or at the very least, that’s the idea for him, he wasn’t certain if he can do that in this world, but it was better to have somewhere nice to sleep than nothing at all. So with all this thought up, Steve did the best tactic when he was lost and needed a good direction to walk toward to. Pulling out the sixteen dirt blocks, he started jumping upward to the sky until all sixteen blocks were gone. Good thing he didn’t need more or use his other blocks, because he was high enough to see a good distance around himself. He had no idea where or what was what from what he could see; to the south-east appeared to be some ruins of a castle, south was plateau and red hills, west was even more trees, and finally north… north was promising. Holy golden apples, what is that? Further north was a marble castle that was built to the side of a gigantic mountain, it was bigger than anything he has ever seen before. What really caught his attention, wasn’t the castle – though that was an interesting fine – but the numerous resources he could find in that mountain. The diamonds and gold I could find in that thing… Okay, whoever brought me to this world, thank you so much! However, there was another interesting thing in Steve’s peripheral vision, just closer to him, but was a distance away, was a village. He wasn’t certain a village of what exactly, but they sure did have some colorful homes… a few interesting ones too. With his mind made up, Steve dug back down and got ready to head north to the village. Maybe I might meet somebody who can talk for once… though considering I don’t speak, I don’t think that would be helpful. Steve starting making his way north, though unaware of his surroundings, several green-glowing orbs gazed at him, a hungry look in their eyes. Equestria, Ponyville; Midday The party ended shortly due to everypony having to focus on repairing the damaged buildings, Twilight waved goodbye to the princesses, but she left some of the guard to stay behind to watch over the town for now. Only five of the guards stayed behind, two of them were mares while the other three were stallions. “Hellow Miss Twilight, I’m Sergeant Rockwall; here are Privates Tiny and Smoke, Private First Class Lovely Sound, and finally Corporal Dice n Slice,” said Rockwall, bowing his head. “Please, just call me Twilight, no need to be formal,” said Twilight. Rockwall was an earth pony, he had a scar near his left eye, he could still see through both luckily, he was the kind of stallion who served under the guard for a long while, a veteran. Tiny and Smoke were both pegasi, they were best friends who both joined the guard together, with Tiny being as his namesake said, somewhat shorter than Smoke, while Smoke had a pretty lengthy mane for a stallion. Finally Lovely Sound and Dice n Slice were both unicorns and mares; Lovely was a daughter of noble, but she was surprisingly nice, and had a Manehattan accent, who was chipper all the time. Dice n Slice, was the opposite of Lovely, due to her name being too long, most guards call her Dice, this resulted in many of said guards to learn she didn’t take no backtalk whatsoever. Dice was the kind of mare who was serious about everything, and spoke as little as possible, but when she spoke, it was mostly to give her report to her superior and speak to those lower ranked than her – mostly to tell them to get back to work. “So you’re the princess’s student, nice ta meetcha dear, Lovely, Lovely Sound; my family owns a shipping company back in Manehattan, and unlike other nobles, we try out best to help the community than some… notable ponies.” Twilight smiled in return and shook her hoof, soon she said her greetings to the other guards, and the five went back to do their business to patrol town or help out with the repairs. Speaking of repairs, Twilight and her friends went to help out themselves with fixing the town, helping to pick up materials used to fix some holes in some buildings, bring food to the workers, and taking care of any injured animals or ponies. With Spike, the two helped organize with fixing the town and helping those in need, the party almost raised some spirits, but Pinkie agreed that she stop the party early so everypony has home to go back to once things are over. It was a good excuse for her to make another party once the town gets better; Twilight noticed one of her friends approaching her, it was Applejack and she did not look good. “What’s wrong AJ, did something happened at Sweet Apple Acres?” “Nah, that’s not that… You seen Applebloom, I asked Rarity and she hasn’t seen her or her sister anywhere in town.” Hmmm, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle are missing… oh no. “Get the girls, I can think of only one place where they could be at right now of all places.” Both mares looked at one another and spoke the exact place. “The Everfree Forest.” “Zecora’s!” Both mares gasped in shock, turning around to look and find Pinkie behind them, also with her were the rest of their friends. “What, I’m not wrong.” “Well, if they are at Zecora’s I can’t blame them, the town wasn’t safe with Discord around, but I hope they’re safe still, I don’t want them heading back to town by themselves in those woods,” said Applejack. “Well we better get those dears before it gets dark,” said Rarity. The six soon headed off, Twilight left Spike in charge to handle with things back in town. The six made their way to Fluttershy’s, since it was the safest place to enter the Everfree. Equestria, Everfree Forest; Afternoon As Steve got further away from the spot he woke up at, he now noticed how dark it was in this place, Steve pulled out his torches, but then realized when holding a torch in a dark area, it lights up the area rather than putting it down. I suppose some things did change now. So instead of putting down torches to light the way, with sword in one hand and a torch in the other, Steve made his way through the forest. This place was darker than the dark oak forest, yet no signs of any monsters luckily. For the last what felt like an hour and a half went by, Steve soon put away his torch when more sunlight could be seen through the leaves. Another interesting thing Steve realized was that compared to blocks he place which have a blocky-look, everything else had way more detail, this also meant that he could technically go through leaves instead of standing on a block of them back home. Guess that means I can’t wait on top a tall tree during night, unless I want to fall face first to the ground, through leaves and branches. Heading through the trees some more, he paused when he heard a familiar sound – the growl of a beast. Slowly reading his sword, Steve scanned his surroundings when he noticed something off about some bushes, they appeared to be moving… breathing. Steve’s eyes widen even further when he realized the bush wasn’t a bush, but was some sort of wooden wolf. The wooden wolf wasn’t alone as there were two more, making that one to a three now. The wolves started to circle him, and these weren’t normal-sized wolves, as they were pretty big, as long as three blocks. A sap dribbled down their maws, their manes were made of leaves and twigs, and most of their body were made any manner of whatever was in this forest… oh and the smell was horrific. My lord, they smell worse than rotten zombies! One of the wolves growled, trying to intimidate Steve, rather Steve was simply curious how creatures made of wood were alive. Ready to slash them, Steve paused and thought for a moment; putting away his sword, Steve pulled out his axe instead. I wonder… One of the wolves charged, seeing that wolf come at him Steve backed off and seeing his chance, swung his axe down onto it’s head. The moment it made contact, Steve brutally tugged his axe out; the light from the wolf vanished, as it soon turned to a pile of sticks and leaves. Both the wolves and Steve were shocked at the immediate reaction his axe had with that one wolf. Slowly he gazed at the other two wolves who now didn’t look so ready to attack him. With a battle charge, Steve raised his axe, the two wolves whimpered and ran off, until Steve couldn’t see them in sight anymore. Shrugging to himself, Steve returned to wielding his sword. That worked way better than I imagined, welp, next time I see them, I might bring out my axe again. Before Steve continued to move on, he noticed something behind some bushes, moving them aside, he found a dirt path, an actual path. Looking down both ends of the path, he noticed one end had some recent prints on the ground; kneeling down to see what they were, he found several pairs of small hoof-prints. Horses, no, they’re way too tiny for baby horses. What kind of creature made these? Seeing how these prints were fresh, Steve decided to follow that end of the path instead. Soon, the further he traveled down the path, the more light bathed within the forest, so much so that he didn’t need his torch anymore to see. He began to notice the trees were slowly changing to a vibrant hue and color, not once has he ever seen such colors before, sure he seen many things but, the numerous colors was simply beautiful. Steve paused when he heard a distant scream, the scream sounded young and… really loud; sprinting toward where the scream – or rather screams, now that he could hear more than one – came from, he spotted the same wooden wolves from before. There were six this time and they all scraped and scratched at a certain tree, trying to reach for something within it’s branches. Steve noticed three small colorful silhouettes from the treetop, one of them squealed in fear as one of the wooden wolves nearly gotten close. For some reason, hearing another in pain, in fear woke some primal force within Steve; wielding his sword in his right hand and his axe in his left hand, Steve readied himself. One of the wolves noticed him and soon the rest began to prowl toward him; each one of them snarled as their sap spittle flung from their maws, their claws dug deep into the dirt and grass. Both Steve and the wolves faced each other, seconds went by as a sudden breeze blew by, the leaves flew through him and the creatures. With a howl, the lead wolf charged at Steve, dirt flung as it’s paws impacted against the ground, charging right forth it’s next meal to come. COME GET SOME YOU WOODEN SONNA OF A CREEPER! Using his sword, Steve blocked one of the wolf’s swipes and with his axe he slammed the flat side against the wolf’s face, staggering it before finishing with a swing of his sword down it’s neck. The wolf gagged before the light within it’s eye sockets vanished, crumbling into a pile of sticks. The rest of the pack didn’t stagger back as two more charged forth with vigor. Steve dodged the first wolf, but the second managed to smack him to the trunk of a tree, sliding down to the ground, he was dazed for a moment when he quickly rolled to the side to dodge the same wolf that smacked him. Using his sword he stabbed into the creature’s wooden rib cage, watching it squirm in what appears to be pain, then finishing it off with his axe right to the face. Once done with that wolf, he turned to face the other wolf when sudden another one sneaked up behind him, however, learning to always be aware of your surroundings, Steve immediately turned around and swung his sword to the side of the wolf’s face, not killing it but making it back off a little. Sadly, this came with his sword breaking, so he switched his axe from his left to his right hand; seeing two of the pack defeated the remaining wolves approached together, and that’s when Steve would witness something extraordinary. All four wooden wolves, slowly coalesce together as parts of themselves and surrounding foliage soon became various parts of even larger entity. After watching this all happened, what stood before Steve was a gigantic wooden wolf, not as big as the Ender Dragon, but it was big indeed, at least seven blocks by length, three blocks by width, and three or four blocks by height. Unsure now of his odds of winning, if he had armor – basic leather or even iron armor would do – he could have a chance against such a beast. With no sword and only his axe, Steve was out of options… that is until he remembered something earlier about this world. Certain items of mind react differently than they would back home… so that means maybe… Steve pulled out one of his torches, holding with his left hand; now with torch in hand, he noticed that while not only did showed light around for at least three to five blocks, depending how dark it was, there was also an almost smokey look to it. Curious, Steve prayed to whatever gods were out there that what he was thinking would work. The giant wooden wolf didn’t seem to notice what was exactly being held on the strange creature’s other limb, but was ready to gobbled it up anyway. Backing up slightly, the wolf charged it’s head with jaws open, ready to swallow the creature whole; seeing this, Steve pulled his left arm back and tossed the torch into the wolf’s maw. What came next, the affect was immediate, as a cascade of flames engulfed the giant wooden wolf in mere moments. With the sticks and leaves not being drenched in rain for days, they were so dry that no matter how much moisture was still on them, a simple ember would have been enough to lit it aflame, but a torch – specifically a torch made by Steve that never looses it’s flame no matter the conditions it goes through – just quadrupled the speed for the flames to spread. The wolf cried in agony as it tried to roll around the dirt, but to no avail as the flames stuck like clay to a potter’s hands. The wolf ran away, both in fear and agony, deeper into the woods until a small speck of light was the only visible thing seen. Making certain the close was clear, Steve kept his axe firm in his right hand and brought a shovel in the other just in case. Waiting for several seconds, Steve put away both items; before checking those stuck in the tree, Steve quickly plopped down a crafting table, and made a new sword real quick, recollecting the crafting table back into his personal inventory. That… was close… I hope I didn’t started an unintentional forest fire… I moved away from that phase of my life. Steve noticed that the wolf that smacked him earlier didn’t do much damage, so the necessity to use a potion wasn’t needed, though he definitely needed food to restore hearts… he was halfway through his hunger. Maybe the ones I save got some spare food I got have. Remembering why he fought these beasts, Steve turned to face the three, not standing to close to not scare those still hiding up above. He could see their surprisingly large eyes eyeing him, but trying his best to be friendly, he sat down and made himself as less threatening as possible. “What the heck is that thing girls?” “I don’t know, what should we do?” “If it tries anything, I’ll beat it senseless!” Well then, that’s a colorful way of saying thanks to somebody that saves you three. Due to not being able to speak, Steve wasn’t certain how to communicate to them, but before he could think of a way, one of the beings came down the three. “SWEETIE! What are you doing, get back here!?” “But, it saved us girls, it can’t be that bad, right?” Steve watched as he saw another impossibility before him; what came down was a light gray white foal, with an interesting color for a mane and tail, it also had a strange mark on both flanks and… Wait, is that a horn?! “Hello, my name is Sweetie Belle! Thank you for saving me and my friends!” said Sweetie, extending a hoof to shake. Steve raised a brow at the gesture, but carefully extended his right arm and shook Sweetie’s right front hoof. Soon the rest of Sweetie’s friends came down; the second one had a pink bow, had a yellowish fur and reddish mane and tail, like Sweetie, she too had marks on her flank but no extra appendages. “Whoa, you’re mighty tall, even though you’re sitting down! What’s yer name partner? Oh by the way, name’s Applebloom!” shouted Applebloom. Huh, her voice has this strange tone in it… I like it, makes me wanna ride Strider. The last one to arrive had orange-like fur and her mane and tail was another color Steve wasn’t familiar with, however, unlike the other two, she had two extra appendages in the form of wings, feathered ones like the parrots Steve has seen in the jungles of his world. “Hey, my friend just asked you your name!” “Scootaloo, don’t be rude; this is my friend Scootaloo, sorry she’s just a tad protective of her friends,” said Applebloom. Steve nodded in understanding, he was pretty protecting of his home, animals, farm, stuff, and even the neighboring villagers. Hmmm, now I look at them, they look a lot like the horses of my world… except they got large eyes, are colorful as the Overworld sky, and way smaller than any horse or quadruped I seen before. “Don’t speak much huh, well there’s nothing wrong with that, we should head outta here soon. After seeing that meanie Discord, we decided to stay at Zecora’s until things quieted down. Once we saw a bright light back at town, we thought things got back to normal… then we caught the attention of some Timberwolves when we tried heading back and then you saved us and, yeah, now we’re here meeting you… Mr?” Ah, so that’s what they’re called. Steve quickly pulled out his journal, writing down the creature he met and his new experiences and meeting the three tiny horses he met. Day 0 – Arrived in new world, met strange wooden wolves called Timberwolves – hostile, axes do more damage to them than a sword. Found out that I can still do what I normally do back in my world, but with some slight changes – torches now create light when held and can cause fires when put near something flammable. After facing a pack of these Timberwolves and facing a giant version made of four of the six I faced, I saved what appears to be three tiny horses. “HEY! We’re not horses, we’re ponies!” shouted Scootaloo, having climbed on Steve’s shoulder. At least they can understand my writing… now that I think about it, if they can read what I write, maybe? Quickly, Steve turned to a new page and wrote a few quick sentences. “Hello, my name is Steve, I’m a Crafter; sorry if I was rude that I don’t know what you are, I’m not from around here. I can’t speak… I’m mute.” “Oh, that’s terrible, well it’s alright Mr Steve, and as to what we are; I’m a unicorn, Applebloom is an earth pony and Scootaloo is a pegasus, but together we are the Cutie!” “Mark!” “CRUSADERS!” Hearing all three of the fillies scream out what appears to be some sort of group or club, Steve rubbed both sides of his cube-shaped head, before giving a small smile in return, continuing to write down on his journal. “Well, it was nice meeting all of you, however, what are three young lasses such as yourselves doing in such a dangerous place. I mean I didn’t intended to be here, but do to certain circumstances I am, but I doubt there could be a good reason for the three you being here.” The three looked at one another until Applebloom stepped forward. “Well, to put it short, a big meanie came to our town a caused all kinds of trouble. We decided to stay at Zecora’s, a friend of ours who lives in the Everfree Forest, and don’t worry her place was safe, as she placed some protections around the place to scare off the creatures of the forest.” This friend of theirs must be pretty experienced to live in a place like this. “Well, I guess that makes sense, but seeing as you are here and not at your friend Zecora’s, I assume it’s safe to return back home?” “Yep! We should totally bring you to Ponyville and show you to Rainbow, I bet she would find you awesome!” said Scootaloo, hovering in place. Seeing her float for a little bit before falling to the ground, showed a sort of wonder within Steve’s eyes. Man, I feel jealous, if only I could fly in the sky myself. As the three fillies were about to lead Steve back to their home, when they heard what appeared to be a loud noise. It sounded familiar to the three fillies, to Steve he didn’t recognize what could be making that noise, but he did knew where it was coming from. Before he could react, the last thing Steve saw was a rainbow-colored blur crashing into him, next was complete darkness. > Chapter 2 - Let's Talk > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earlier – Equestria, Everfree Forest; Afternoon The girls traveled down the path behind Fluttershy’s cottage, with Twilight in the lead with Applejack, Rainbow was slightly above them but not ahead of them, behind them was Pinkie with Rarity and Fluttershy in the rear. “We should be at Zecora’s in half an hour, I just hope she has the girls at her place,” said Twilight. “Don’t scare me like that Twi,” said Applejack. “Sorry...” Twilight knew she shouldn’t say stuff like that, but the Everfree was no joke, to be honest sometimes she thinks how did herself and her friends manage to survive in this deadly forest each time they have to come through her. There were dozens of close calls for all of them… she could never imagine her life without any of her friends. Rainbow was flapping her wings, that everypony noticed, they could tell that their brash friend was ready to just burst forth to find the girls. Before anypony could say anything to ease her worries, a sudden plume of fire and smoke could be seen ahead of the path. “What in the-” “Its the girls! IMMA COMING SCOOTALOO!” shouted Rainbow. With a loud flap, Rainbow zoomed ahead of her friends toward where she spotted the sudden burst of flames. Everypony was shocked until they soon chased after their friend; Rainbow had dozens of thoughts going through her head, and just as fast she could reach Canterlot from Ponyville, these thoughts zoomed by with one single thought dominant in her mind. PLEASE BE FINE! PLEASE BE FINE! PLEASE BE FINE! Rainbow’s worry vanish after seeing Scootaloo and her friends safe and sound… who were also with some strange bipedal thing. It looked like minotaur but was way taller than a minotaur, furless, didn’t had any hooves for legs, and wore clothes. The thought of thinking the thing with the girls was alright, was overruled by her need to protect. Many would say Rainbow can be a tad brash when making decisions, but her loyalty to her friends and family was strong… so she sort of went into tunnel vision when she saw Scootaloo, her favorite fan, close to some sort of weird creature. With a battlecry and going as close to Mach 1, Rainbow slammed into the creature with both forehooves stretched forward, sending it flying right into a tree, watching it slide to the ground until landing face first. “YEAH! Take that you… whatever you are!” “Rainbow, what are you doing here!?” asked Scootaloo. Scootaloo was the only one focused on her idol while Sweetie and Applebloom were a bit worried about Steve, who was still face first on the ground. “You okay squirt, what the heck is that thing? I’ve never seen anything like that before!” “Oh that’s Steve- OH MY GOODNESSS STEVE! YOU ALRIGHT!?” The three girls quickly rushed up to the Crafter, at that moment the rest of the Mane 6 arrived, first they spotted Rainbow with a confused look until they spotted what she was looking at. “My goodness, what happened to that poor thing,” said Fluttershy. “Uhhhm, my bad, I might have went and slammed into him without thinking,” said Rainbow, with a sheepish smile. “Never mind him, where’s Swee- DEAR CELESTIA, THOSE CLOTHES ARE HORRENDOUS!” Everypony raised their brows at their fashionista friend, while everypony else was trying to figure out what happened, Steve finally woke up with a shake of his head, he spotted the six new mares and the three fillies worried around him. “Mr Steve, you okay?” asked Sweetie. Steve managed to stand up, nodding his head to placate the fillies’ worries. “Oh, that’s good, I’m surprised you got knocked out by Rainbow, usually anypony hit from her at that speed usually doesn’t wake up for awhile.” I had to deal with walking tnt mobs called Creepers that can launch me two to five blocks away, a hit like that isn’t that bad… well, maybe a little, I have three and a half hearts left. Seeing that Rainbow’s charge was enough to do that much damage was a bit worrying, good thing he had his healing potions. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out one of said healing potions, and drank every last drop. Soon his hearts all coming back to full health; now with an empty bottle, he put that away until his focus went back to the six mares. I assume one of them are the guardians of these three… the one with the hat and the fancy manes might be related to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. Twilight soon noticed the strange creature with the girls were looking at them, getting the rest of her friends attention they soon stared at Steve. “Uhhhh, hello, I assume you were with my friends’ sisters? Mr?” “His name is Steve, he can’t talk,” said Sweetie. “He’s mute,” said Scootaloo bluntly. “But he’s really nice though,” said Applebloom, finishing last. They weren’t sure how to take these news, not only were the girls safe, but they met with some strange creature too. “Wait, if he’s mute, how were you able to communicate with him?” Ah, time for me to shine now. Steve brought his journal out, writing down a quick line and showing to the six mares. “Like this, by the way, might I ask for your names?” “Oh right sorry; my name is Twilight Sparkle. The one wearing the stetson is my friend Applejack, she’s Applebloom’s big sister. The one with the rainbow mane is Rainbow Dash, that one is Sweetie Belle’s older sister, Rarity, behind her is Fluttershy, she’s a little shy, and finally-” “MY NAME IS PINKIE PIE, NICE TO MEET YOU!” shouted Pinkie. BY THE OVERWORLD WHERE DID SHE COME FROM!? Steve backed up in surprised before shaking Pinkie’s right leg, soon Pinkie was brought back with Twilight’s magic – or to Steve, a weird purple glow around Pinkie. “Sorry, she can doesn’t know personal space… she can a bit overwhelming, but you get used to it.” “Right… I assume you are all here because of these three, they were lucky I came along, were being attacked by a pack of those Timberwolf things.” “WHAT!?” Rarity and Applejack both screamed at the same time, Rainbow was about to say something, but everypony immediately knew what she would say. She immediately closed her mouth before trying to give Scootaloo a stern look. “What were you thinking Scoots, don’t do something dangerous like that…” said Rainbow, leaning toward Scootaloo. “Especially when I’m not around.” Rainbow whispered that last part, but the others heard or guessed what she said to her little sister figure. Steve found this interaction kind of sweet, he didn’t had any older or younger siblings before, so seeing others like this was kind of cool. ...Now I’m sad I don’t have any blood relatives. “Again, thank you for saving the girls, but… who or what exactly are you?” asked Twilight. Before Steve could explain, he noticed a floating notepad near Twilight, it had the same glow he seen that surrounded Pinkie Pie. Ignoring the floating object, Steve wrote down that he was something called a Crafter, he came from somewhere faraway – he didn’t want to explain the idea of him coming from another world – and he somehow ended up in this strange forest, which he was being told was called, the Everfree Forest. “Well, we can continue this later, we should head back to Ponyville before it gets dark.” After that, soon everypony and their newest acquaintance followed the path back to Ponyville. Nobody spoke, but Twilight definitely had more questions, and the CMC wanted to hang out with Steve some more. Rainbow was sorry about her earlier action, but Rarity and Applejack were a bit unsure about this mysterious creature, Pinkie was Pinkie… but Fluttershy was the one pony Steve was interested on… well it was because, every so often the mare would look at him before continuing to look forward… or shyly gaze on the ground. I wonder what’s wrong with her? She’s been gazing back at me every so often, but she hasn’t said why she’s doing so. Soon they managed to leave the forest and arrived at Fluttershy’s backyard, which was simply a wide area for her animals to roam, the only area that was fenced was her chicken coop. “Um… I’m going to check on my animals, I’ll see you girls later,” said Fluttershy, swiftly heading back inside. Deciding that it was getting late, everypony else was going head back to their own homes too; Rainbow would bring Scootaloo back to her place, Applejack and Rarity were going to bring their sisters back to their respective homes, while Pinkie left to plan Steve’s welcome party later. This left only Twilight and Steve, the two were heading back to Twilight’s place. Even though it was just the afternoon recently, time seemed to wait by quickly as the sun was already setting, and the slight glimmer of the moon could be sighted. Not a lot of ponies were outside, but those that were who saw Steve had mixed feelings; due to Steve looking a lot like a minotaur, many didn’t panic, however, the somewhat cautious gaze could be visibly seen on many ponies. Hope he won’t feel hurt from how their looking at him. Checking on her future house guest, she noticed Steve didn’t paid attention to any bystanders but the coming night sky, particularly the slowly descending sun. “Is something wrong Mr Steve?” asked Twilight. Steve looked at Twilight, but gave a reassuring wave. “Please, call me Steve… and… well, I’m afraid of the dark.” It was a strange thing for Steve to mention, but Twilight just assumed it was due to waking up in the Everfree Forest, that place can be pretty dark. “Don’t worry, not every place that’s pitch black isn’t as bad as the Everfree, I know a certain princess who can tell you that there’s nothing to be afraid of the night.” The night? Well, I’m not afraid of the night, there can be as much dangers in the morning or under the sun, the night can be quite beautiful… no… The darkness is not something you should joke about, but something you should be wary of. While Steve didn’t seem to say anything or write anything to Twilight, the grim look on his face was enough to tell her that whatever Steve thought of was serious. The two soon approached Twilight’s home, when Steve first saw it, he was quite impressed, even the many creations he made, he never imagined using a tree as a home… though most the trees he knows of are either one or two blocks thick… not that spacious enough to make a home inside, maybe on top, but never the interior. Entering inside, Twilight seemed to call for somebody, but Steve was more interested by his surroundings than whom Twilight was calling for. Her tree-home, was filled with books, it was clear that either Twilight was an avid reader or a librarian… or both. Hearing somebody coming downstairs, Steve spotted… well another interesting creature; it stood on two claw-like feet, was made of green and purple scales, was as big as the little ponies from before, and from what he can tell it was definitely a boy. “Oh hey Twi… uhhhh, who is that?” “Oh, this here is Steve; Steve, I like you to meet my assistant, Spike.” Spike approached Steve, extending his own claw toward the quite tall Crafter. “Hey, nice ta meet you Steve,” said Spike, smiling. Steve shook Spike’s claw and after quickly explaining he can’t speak, the two decided to converse a bit while Twilight went upstairs to handle some quick business. “So, where do you come from Steve?” “Well, instead of answering question by question, let me explain some things you might want to know about me. As Twilight explained, my name is Steve, I am a Crafter and I come from somewhere really faraway, it best I explain this when Twilight comes back. I enjoy exploring, creating anything from anything, food, riding my-” Steve paused, he was speaking to what was technically a lizard – or dragon as Spike explained about himself – and there was also talking ponies which were close to horses… it be a bit weird if Steve said he rode a horse. Quickly, Steve rewritten that part, to better fit what he was trying to explain earlier. “Traveling with my companion, Strider, and sometimes other companions, I also do love seeing and finding anything I find new and unfamiliar. My favorite colors are lime green, yellow, and light blue; I love mining underground, especially when find iron, gold or diamonds, oh and… … well, that’s about it.” Spike was pretty amazed, the things Steve said made it sound like he did more than simple life, but journeyed across the world and over again and again. “Your life sounds amazing! Like one of my comics!” Steve found Spike’s excitement a nice thing to see… but his life was dangerous too, strife with deadly creatures, unpredictable biomes, dangerous weather, and sometimes… fear of the unknown was the greatest threat. Something new always appeared and Steve would have to go through trial and error to see what sort of limits and capabilities this new oddity had… this also involved the numerous deaths he went through. Him appearing in this new world can be considered an oddity, but this time he would have to wary of everything, no matter the situation. At that moment, Twilight came back down with a floating scroll beside her… that and several other more notepads, inks, and ink pens. “Spike, can you send this to the princess, I want to tell her of Steve’s arrival, it should be important that she’s informed of what could be first contact with a new race.” Spike saluted, and to Steve surprise, the dragon blew a flume of green flames that engulfed the scroll with the ash floating off and out an open window. After some explaining of Spike being able to send messages through his flames, Twilight began her version of a conversation with Steve – recording every last detail. Steve was obliged to inform Twilight, but before they could get any further – Twilight was writing down Steve’s race, and the many oddities of his strange form – Steve finally told both her and Spike, about where and what exactly caused his appearance in the Everfree Foreest. Some long explanations and note-taking later – Equestria, Ponyville; Golden Oaks Library; Evening “So… you are from another world, when some strange portal sucked you in and brought you to ours, plopping down in the Everfree Forest. Not only that, but back in your world, you are the only one of your kind, and surrounded by strange beings called Villagers, and all manner of deadly creatures… but not a single one of the creatures in your world can speak and make various different noises. Not to mention that you have strange abilities that allow to manipulate the properties of your world, that you can literally warp the rules of reality itself...” said Twilight. Steve nodded with a shrug, both his listeners were in a mix of shock, but Spike was the first to get out of his own stupor. “Well.. I can believe that.” “THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! EVERYTHING HAS RULES, WHETHER IT BE USING MAGIC, THE LAWS OF GRAVITY, OR TRAVELING FROM FAR DISTANCES! The amount of energy that had to be used to come from your world to ours – nevertheless, the amount of energy to allow you to travel to other worlds – would be beyond any form of energy source that can be used in our world, and from what I can understand you don’t have the capabilities to do anything of what I just explained! YOU EITHER HAVE TO BE LYING OR DELUSIONAL!” Steve felt insulted by this comment, and deciding to declare his abilities, he quickly looked around and did something that would be rude of him but necessary to prove his point. “Steve I’m sorry that I don’t believe you but- Wait, what are you do-” Steve began to punch a chunk of the room’s ceiling off; the yelling from Twilight and astonishment of Spike were stopped after Steve’s actions. Instead of the ceiling collapsing or bits of wood dust to falll… but there was a perfectly one by one by one meter cut cube hole on the ceiling of Twilight’s home… and that block Steve took was magically floating on his right palm. Words weren’t needed for Steve to say anything, actions spoke louder than words; Twilight slowly examined the cube of wood floating and calmly spinning on Steve’s palm. Before she could touch it, Steve calmly slapped the oak wood back into the place he took it from, soon it morphed back easily, showing no signs of it being removed at the slightest. “...You have to show me more.” Steve smiled, he might enjoy being in this strange unknown world a bit longer than planned. > Chapter 3 - Royal Introductions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equestria, Ponyville; Golden Oaks Library; Evening Steve retold everything about himself, his world, and any other details Twilight was curious about. They would have continued to be honest and it wasn’t due to Steve being tired, but living with a baby dragon and being the protege of the princess means to have proper management of your time. With what notes she has taken already, Twilight went upstairs to get some shut-eye, the message she sent to Celestia having gotten a reply recently. My dear Twilight, I like you to bring this being called Steve to Canterlot, your friends can come along with you; come tomorrow morning and I’ll have my guards transport you to the castle, this “Crafter” is under an interesting situation. From, Princess Celestia “I guess we have to stop for now, but thank you for answering my questions, maybe once we come back from Canterlot we can do some tests relating to your powers,” said Twilight. “I had Spike set up a temporary bed downstairs for you, we’ll leave once the sun rises, goodnight Steve.” “You have a good rest too.” After that, Twilight went upstairs to her room, Steve soon went downstairs himself, holding a torch to see, Steve saw a mattress, a blanket, and some pillows. Even though Steve was in a different world, he wasn’t as trusting of sleeping in the dark, so placing a torch to light the room, Steve pulled the blanket to cover himself and laid on the bed. Unlike beds from his world, the bed of this world didn’t have that strange affect of changing night-to-day immediately, but the moment he laid down and closed his eyes, a sense of peace befell him, putting him in a deep sleep. Equestria, Canterlot; Canterlot Castle, Luna’s Tower; Midnight Luna’s return from her thousand year banishment had its obvious effects to all of Equestira, there was still some mistrust with her and the populace of today. This hasn’t stop her from helping those with nightmares and doing her job as princess. Seeing as tonight – as always – she hasn’t received any petitioners, Luna decided to go through the dreamscape to find any ponies who had any nightmares and there was quite a lot in Ponyville. Most likely has to do with that spirit of chaos doing. Luna has gone through several nightmares in Ponyville already, each involving Discord in some way. As she was finishing her latest nightmare, she was ready to head off to the next one when she noticed a particular dreamer. Hmmm, this dreamer seems… different. Curious Luna approaches the dreamer’s manifested entrance, unlike the dreams of those in Equestria, which took the form of that pony’s interests, their cutiemarks or personality, this dreamer was different; instead of the expected entrances, it was just a simple regular door – the door itself was made of an oak material, the handle wasn’t designed for those with hooves, and there was a cross-wooden section that was used as a glassless window. “How particular...” Luna used her magic to open the door and entered inside, for awhile a bright white light blinded her, then soon the light dimmed and what she saw amazed her. “By the stars...” It was a vast open grassland, in the distance were endless forests in one direction, a desert sprinkled with cacti, dense jungles, another forest coated in snow and further beyond were mountains of varying heights. The one key similarity all of these places have was that they have a blocky look to them, even the leaves were just blocks of leaves. In the middle of the grassland was a single hill with a single tree, she could sense the dreamer of this place there. Approaching the hill, Luna felt the grass of this strange world, the blue skies as blocky clouds gently floated by, this world was peaceful and held a sense of wonder to it. Once she was at the top of the hill, she spotted an interesting creature, it was tall as a minotaur, wore a light blue shirt, blue jeans, and what appears to be gray footwear. He had dark brown hair, dark skin, small nose and mouth… and blue eyes. Wait a minute. It was at that moment Luna realized her mysterious dreamer had awoken, he was gazing at her for a long while, surprisingly there was no shock in his eyes but a sort of curiosity instead. Soon he slowly moved his upper body up and began to stand to his full height, facing Luna. She realized Steve was taller than she imagined, she was nearly close to her sister’s height without including her horn. “You are quite big… Who are you?” The creature continued to look at Luna then at it’s surroundings, then opened it’s mouth. “Wait, wasn’t I at Twilight’s basement sleeping, how am I back in my world?” The shock on the creature was sudden, it reached up to it’s mouth then throat. “I’m… talking… HOLY NETHER I’M TALKING!” “Calm down, you are dreaming,” said Luna. “I’m… dreaming?” The two look at one another, until the creature gave a thoughtful look before having a sudden realization on it’s face. “That’s right, I went to bed in the basement of Twilight’s… so I guess this must be a dream, well first time dreaming, especially in another world, no surprise something strange would happen.” The things this creature said were strange, but instead of thinking it over she instead asked the dreamer itself. “Sorry to intrude your dream, but I am Princess Luna, Ruler of the Night, Princess of the Moon, and Watcher of Dreams. I saw signs of a strange dreamer and investigated… you mentioned young Twilight earlier, are you an acquaintance of hers?” The creature faced Luna and paid full attention to her. “Yep, I met her after a misunderstanding, I’m staying at her place until morning… So, if this is a dream… I wonder...” The creature extended it’s hand and suddenly a cookie popped into existence. It appears he has a good control of his own dream, he must have a very strong will to do that. “Sweeet! LET THERE BE COOKIES!” Like that, cookies starting popping into existence from his hands, until the creature sat down and munched on them. “Would you like one too Luna?” Luna found the creature’s somewhat odd but easy-going attitude relaxing, laying down beside him, she too floated a cookie to herself and ate it. “Hmmmm, it has a slight cocoa flavor to them, don’t they,” said Luna. “Yeah, thet’re made from cocoa seeds from the jungles of my home!” Luna examined the jungle she spotted earlier and faced the creature once more. “I see, so this is your homeland… I am sorry earlier, but I haven’t gotten your name, who might you be?” “Steve… long story, but I’m not from here...” Some time later… “...And that’s how I got here, in this dream, talking to you,” said Steve. Both Luna and Steve were now sitting on some chairs and a table made by Luna, enjoying one another talk, mostly Steve explaining his recent situation of coming from another world and appearing in this one. Right now, Luna was enjoying some mushroom soup from Steve’s world that he made appear while Steve had – oddly enough – a metal bucket of milk. The milk bucket would have more milk appear with each drink Steve had. He must have quite sturdy bones to drink that much amount of milk. “So Steve, you had quite an interesting day and seeing you will be soon coming to Canterlot soon, it would be wonderful to meet you in person.” “Yeah, me too, though the me there than here are a little different, you’ll see what I mean once you meet me in person.” Luna wasn’t certain what Steve met, but she had to leave soon, she still had her duties to do and luckily not a lot of time went by for the Crafter and alicorn. Standing up, Luna said her farewells and left through the same door she used to enter Steve’s dream the first time. Steve watched his newest friend leave and decided to spend his time doing something else to past the time – build. Unlike how he regularly builds, Steve had several interesting abilities in his dream, making some certain blocks appear, he floated up to survey the area. “Now… what to make?” Equestria, Ponyville; Golden Oaks Library; Morning The moment the sun began to rise, Steve woke up earlier than planned by Twilight’s estimates, taking his torch back, Steve made his way back upstairs. Heading up, he noticed that Spike was up earlier today too and was cooking breakfast. Hearing the sounds of somebody entering the kitchen, Spike turned around to find Steve there. “Oh, hey Steve, was just making breakfast, we’re going to be having pancakes seeing as you mentioned to Twilight that your omnivorous, so pancakes is one of the few things you can eat with the two of us,” said Spike. Steve nodded in agreement to the food choice, seeing as food wasn’t ready yet, he went back to where all the books upon shelves were kept; scanning each shelf, Steve checked which book would peak his interest until he came upon an interesting book in particular. Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, hmmm… Finding a place to sit, Steve sat on the armchair couch and opened the book to read, later, Twilight soon woke up and as she made her way downstairs, she found Steve reading halfway though the first release of the Daring Do book series. “I see you’re reading Daring Do, she’s amazing,” said Twilight. Steve nodded, before returning to focus solely on its pages. Spike soon peeked into the living room to find Twilight awake now. “Oh you’re awake Twilight, well breakfast is ready,” said Spike. Both Twilight and Steve joined Spike for breakfast, there were three types of pancakes Spike made, gem-filled pancakes for Spike, then some chocolate-chipped pancakes and plain pancakes for Steve and Twilight. While the chairs were designed for ponies, Steve managed to comfortingly sit on his, eating the pancake – mostly by hand than with the small utensils. “Those were some delicious pancakes Spike, well we should get ready to go soon, we’re going to go to Canterlot by train with the rest of the girls. Spike you go get Rarity, I’ll head to Pinkie’s then Applejack’s, Steve if you could head to Fluttershy and ask her to get Rainbow then meet us back at the train station, we’ll all meet up there.” Nodding, the three headed out, Steve making his way to the cottage he remembered passing yesterday which was Fluttershy’s home. Taking a better look of the place, there were small holes and birdhouses within the trees near the cottage; Steve could feel the lives of dozens of creatures nearby, all eyeing him with varying emotions, but most commonly curiosity was above it all. Steve stood before the door to Fluttershy’s, raising his fist and knocking on it twice. At first there was no response, but after hearing the door unlocking Steve waited as the door opened slightly, peeking out was Fluttershy. Seeing who it was, the shy mare made a quiet eep but still kept the door ajar to look at Steve… well, kind of. “Um, hello there Mr Steve… is there a reason why you’re here… not there’s anything wrong with that...” “Twilight was summoned by the leadership of this kingdom, she told me to tell you, that if you could call Rainbow Dash and to meet her and the others at the train station.” Fluttershy understood and after getting out and closing the door, she made her way to where Rainbow’s place was; seeing her leave, Steve made his way to the train station where he soon spotted everyone else except Rainbow and Fluttershy. Waiting for the two pegasi, once they arrived everyone got on the train to Canterlot; once settled, everyone chatted with one another, this left Steve by himself as sat by himself in the train cart. The Crafter gazed at the changing landscape, the far-reaching grass plains, the luscious forests, and magnificent mountains, all of it was there for him to witness. I wonder if they’ll let me strip mine those mountains? “Hey Steve, hey, hey!” Turning to face the one trying to get his attention, Steve was facing Pinkie who was hopping toward him, then sitting beside him. “You were with Twilight and all and I was wondering when’s your birthday, then I want to prepare a welcome party for you after Canterlot!” “That sounds nice… but I don’t really have a birthday or rather I don’t remember when it was… time works differently in my world than it would yours… how about the day I arrived be my birthday.” “Really!? Well, I suppose making the day you came here can be your birthday,” said Pinkie. After that talk with Pinkie, the rest of the train ride was spent silently watching the landscape change until the train finally reached its destination. Slowing to a stop, Twilight, her friends, and Steve made their way to Canterlot Castle, the citizens of Canterlot stared at Steve, some curious, while the usual response was for ponies to snootily bring their snouts up. Steve was just as curious as the ponies who gazed at him, examining the surrounding city of its various buildings, the mix of white marble, gold and purple roof tiles and windows made an interesting site to the Crafter. Reminds me of when I used nether quartz to make blocks of quartz that one time… made a small shrine out of the stuff… don’t know why though, just felt like it. As they neared the castle, a pair of guards stationed at the gates to the castle saw the group approaching, one of the guards spoke to Twilight, looking at Steve than back at her. “Hello Miss Twilight, we know about your visit to the castle today, but might I ask who’s that with you?” “Oh, he was also called to come and meet the princess, he’s a friend,” said Twilight. The guard nodded and gestured to his fellow guard to open the gate and as the guard reached for a lever for the gate to open. Once it fully opened, the group headed toward the castle, following Twilight as she knew the way to the throne room. Reaching the giant doors of the throne room, the doors opened and entering inside, they saw Celestia with Luna beside her. Standing before the throne, Celestia stood up from her throne and approached her student. “Twilight my dear, so glad to see you,” said Celestia, giving her a wing hug. “You too princess, I also brought my friends and Steve too,” said Twilight. Seeing everyone here, Celestia invited everyone to enjoy some tea in the royal gardens, heading there, the group sat around a table with the garden just outside. “So Mr Steve, while my student has explained so far about what you are and your current situation… I like to ask you my own questions if you are alright with that,” said Celestia, sipping a cup of tea. Steve nodded, as he pulled out his journal and was ready to start writing down his responses. First off, your abilities remind me to another reality-bending being… by any chance do you think a being called Discord summoned you here and have you ever encountered him before? “Don’t know who this Discord is, but I was brought by a strange rainbow portal, nobody by the name of Discord brought me to your world.” Seeing as her suspicions of Steve being a result of Discord’s shenanigans being answered, she didn’t have to worry that this was another one of his tricks. Moving on, how far does your abilities extend exactly, what exactly can and can’t you do? “Well, I know I can still do what I usually do back in my world, but so far I still know as far what you know; I had the ability to store items in what I like to call my personal storage, I can stack blocks to a certain extent – in my world – and if I stack three blocks on top each other and break the lower two, the third one will stay afloat – unless it’s gravel, sand, or something.” Interesting, you mentioned to my student that you have a strange ability to come back upon death to the place you slept or… the place you first “awoken” within your world. Do you think it’s possible you can do the same here? Steve stayed quiet or stopped writing as he gazed at the blank page of his journal, until he continued to write. “While that is an interesting question… I don’t think I would like to test that theory, there are other things I can do that requires certain items. When drinking cow’s milk, I can cure myself of any and all kinds of affects – poison, withering, negative potion effects, and so on – though I can only do so with an iron bucket oddly enough. Another interesting ability is when I sleep in a bed-” “Hold on, you didn’t mention this to me, I remember you could come back upon death when sleeping in a bed, but what else can you do?” asked Twilight. “Well, I can change the time, specifically if it’s night, I just go to sleep and it’s morning immediately afterwards.” Everyone looked at Steve with varying reactions, until Spike spoke next. “Whoa… you can do that.” “NO HE CAN’T! It didn’t change into morning when he went to bed last night, so that means he can’t do that,” said Twilight, her mane going wild. “You seem to forget that it was a bed you set up for me, not one made by me, usually items I make or interact with have a lingering affect from me. Remember when I broke a piece of your ceiling and the rest of the house didn’t collapse.” “...He does have a point Twilight, that bed wasn’t made by him and he did do the impossible that one time.” Twilight was speechless but gave up after learning that one incident with Pinkie and her Pinkie Sense. “Well, I do have more questions but thank you for answering them, you may stay in the castle for awhile until you and your friends are ready to return home Twilight. It was nice meeting you Mr Steve, I hope you enjoy your time in our world and I’ll see if there’s a way to get you back home.” “Thank you princess, but we’ll head home now,” said Twilight. “Right after we do some shopping!” As Rarity headed to the market district of Catnerlot with Spike, the rest of Twilight’s friends explored Canterlot. As everyone left, Steve stayed behind as the princesses still needed to speak to him. “Yes, is there something you need princesses?” “Actually, no, but there is something we can give to you,” said Luna. Reaching with her magic, she summoned an interesting item, an amulet with the symbols of the sun and moon on it. “This here is a telepathy amulet created by myself and my sister, just for you. Having to write down on your journal can be quite time-consuming, not to mention you will run out of pages in time.” “Oh don’t worry, my journal is another item affected by my abilities, I can constantly turn a page infinitely, unless I will the book to be considered complete – free pages forever!” “That is quite a useful ability, but I believe this would be more helpful for you,” said Celestia. Levitating the amulet to Steve, he wasn’t sure how to wear it as he wears his armor through his inventory, but looking through his inventory, he noticed a new equipment box appeared, shaped as a necklace, right beside his wear he puts his helmets on. Slapping the necklace there, soon the necklace vanished from his right blocky hand, coalescing to appear around his neck. Seeing this, the two sisters were amazed, then the two smiled and awaited Steve to use his gift. “So, how is it?” “...Pretty fine I guess,” said – or rather thought – Steve. Luna and Celestia heard his voice in their heads, the voice of Steve sounding exactly how Luna heard it in his dream. “It works sister, something we made together has helped our new friend,” said Luna. “Indeed Luna. Now Steve, this necklace works by using your mind, so if you wish to speak to certain ponies, simply think who want to speak to and they’ll hear your thoughts. There is a limit of roughly three to five meters, the farther they are, the harder it is for your thoughts to reach them and the limit of those that can hear you is up to six to ten, again the more people you think of, the more it’ll sound like gibberish.” “Thank you for giving this to me, I’ll always keep it on me,” said Steve. “Well while wearing it isn’t necessary, seeing those clothes of yours might answer as to how you handle your day-to-day activities… Might I suggest you clean up and get a fresh set of clothing here in Canterlot or ask Rarity, she’s a seamstress from Twilight’s letters,” said Celestia. “Well alright but I never worn anything else before and never taken these clothes off… they don’t really smell and I never seen them torn up before.” Another one of his abilities I see… “Still, change your clothes Steve, I worry Rarity might ambush you and force you to change,” said Luna, giggling. After receiving his gift, he waved goodbye to the two princesses, soon he met up with Twilight and after exploring Canterlot, meeting the others at the train station and headed back to Ponyville, Steve thought of his future plans in staying in this world… and what he find and do whilst here. > Chapter 4 - Discovering Beyond the Forest (non-canon) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equestria; Ponyville, Ponyville Train Station; Late Afternoon The group returned from Canterlot after meeting the princesses and sight-seeing the city, everyone headed back to their respective homes with Steve going back to the library with Twilight and Spike. Once entering inside, Steve headed to the basement and decided to make a chest to keep some of his belongings in; Steve planned to head to the Everfree Forest to check and find more items that were unique to this world. Steve’s goal was to experiment and see how would the items in this world would interact with him – both physically and with his abilities – and he also wanted to see how far has his abilities changed and evolved. To better test his abilities, he thought of exploring the forest now, leaving behind everything in his inventory he only brought along all four of his tools, every available torch he made so far, his crafting table, his two remaining potions of healing, and the recent gift from the princesses – the amulet that allowed him to “speak” to anyone. As he was just heading out, Twilight spots him leaving as she was in the middle of organizing some of the shelves within the library. “Oh hey Steve, are you going somewhere?” asked Twilight. “I’m going to the Everfree Forest to explore and collect some stuff, I’ll be back later,” said Steve, reaching for the door. Twilight quickly stop what she was doing and tugged on Steve’s outstretched blocky limb with her magic. “H-Hold on there, you shouldn’t be going there, its dangerous!” Steve raises a brow and asks Twilight why is everyone so afraid of that place, having seen the threats within weren’t that much of a threat compared to the mobs he dealt with back in his world. Twilight sighs, after letting go of his limb, she explains why the Everfree isn’t a place to be taken lightly by anyone. Thinking she’s managed to convinced him, this only peaked Steve’s curiosity even further, but before he could attempt to leave again, Twilight comes up with a compromise. “Wait! How about you go tomorrow in the morning, its almost dark and the creatures of the Everfree are most active around that time of day.” Well… I don’t have natural night-vision or ingredients to make a night-vision potion, and making equipment for armor isn’t possible right now. I do want to check that forest, but maybe doing it when its daytime is better… “Alright, but you promise alright, I’ll wait for now.” After Twilight was certain Steve won’t go, she sighed in relief, afterwards, Steve headed back downstairs and decided to get some early sleep. He found out he can sleep anytime, and it didn’t require a bed, he still wasn’t sure if by sleeping on his bed resets his spawn or not… but he wasn’t brave enough to test that theory as it required him to die. Closing his eyes, he went to sleep, at first nothing happened but after what felt like some time went by, his eyes opened and he found himself in an unfamiliar place. At first Steve wasn’t certain where he was, it was absolute white vast flat space, nothing as far he could see. For a moment that nothingness slowly changed with a flash of light, and when he opened his eyes, he was once again in a very familiar space. The place was a sight he’d never forget, he’d seen this place countless times – just after he’d died from varying things, starvation, falling from a long drop, burning alive, stabbed, shot, beaten, drowned, suffocated, blown up, withered, poisoned, and his least favorite, falling into the eternal darkness called the Void. It was the first thing he saw when he first “awoken” in the Overworld as well as the recurring sight he see whenever his bed was destroyed… his birthplace or loving called – the Spawning Point. It was somewhat flat grassy plains, some hills interspersed, with the nearest tree being an oak tree just some blocks away. South by a hundred blocks was a decently large forest, near the edge of that forest was his first constructed home – a simple dirt shack… which was later upgraded to a wooden shack. To his north by a three thousand blocks was a jungle, to his east by two thousand blocks, was a mountainous biome while to his west by just five hundred blocks is ocean, beyond that ocean is a desert. His current home is similar albeit different from the Spawning Point, he couldn’t remember which direction his current home is from the Spawning Point, but whenever a creeper would blow up his current bed or he break and suddenly killed, he always start from scratch… and then wander off a random direction and began the endless cycle that was his life – break a tree, get wood, dig down, get stone and explore. There was a few odd things, firstly the sun up above didn’t move an inch, as it was stiffly up in the sky that signaled noon. Being deeply ingrained to the time whenever he’s on the surface, he knew when it was to the second… this felt wrong. The other odd thing… was Luna standing some distance away from him with an amazed look in her eye, gazing at the surrounding landscape before he gaze met Steve’s. “So this is your world? I can see what you meant earlier about it being very… different, much more cuboid than I thought… much like yourself, Steve.” Steve knew he couldn’t speak much as he hasn’t spoken to another living being that he could understand ever… so when he opened his mouth, it surprised him what happened. “Yep, to me your world looked like everything was bonkers.” Both the lunar princess and Minecraftian were shocked and wide-eyed, Steve spoke and his voice was what Luna expected for him to speak. It sounded like a minotaur between their mid-twenties to mid-thirties, with a slight dept tone that spoke somebody who’s much older than they looked – a being experienced in a rough and lonely life. “My voice… this is my voice…” Steve eyes were wide and looked somewhat glassy, the beginning tears could be seen ready to happen. Steve seen, done, and felt wondrous things… but to hear and feel his own voice and words, could be the greatest gift in his long life… he would give anything just to hear himself speak… it was a bit vain of himself, but to a being who’s been silent for eons, you be ecstatic to hear yourself speak when mute for too long. “It appears in your dream-state, you can now hear your real voice, I am happy that you get to hear and be a part of a wondrous moment,” said Luna, smiling. For a short while, Steve froze and looked at Luna, realization beginning to form in his eyes and mind. “I’m dreaming… So… I won’t be able to hear myself speak when awake.” Luna knew that wasn’t a question but a fact… a statement that what was happening was nothing more but a fantastical moment that could never happen in the waking world. At first she worried she upset Steve, but he sighed before giving a small smile back at Luna. “No matter, I’m glad I could had this gift, to be honest I never dreamed before… this is a first for me and its a wonderful gift.” Luna was surprised Steve never dreamed before, but she suppose in a world which the day-and-night cycle could be changed in a moment by Steve taking a nap wouldn’t be enough time for someone to dream. So Steve decided to explore his surroundings… well mostly he said words he never had the chance to hear himself say. Watching he say things that Luna knew and never heard before was a happy sight, but soon said spectacle ended when he turned to face Luna. “So Luna… you here for a visit or needed something?” When she saw a new dream bubble near Twilight and Spike’s dream bubbles, she knew it was Steve’s, it was quite a shock to hear him speak, so Luna explained her responsibilities with ponies dreams in Equestria. The two talked a little – Steve though never had conversation with another being with his own voice, so it got a little awkward a few times. They talked a little about what they did after their last discussion, but soon the conversation changed to Luna asking about Steve’s world and other things. Steve talked about his first discovery of cocoa beans, how he made cookies with those beans, discovering an enderman, how pumpkins allowed him to look at one without worry of attack, and how water makes a perfect deterrent against them. He mentioned the various redstone mechanisms – the friendlier ones – he created, his first encounter with villagers, discovering the End portal, fought the End Dragon, and found bountiful treasures in the End cities. Luna listened to his many discoveries and adventures, his travels through the desert, discovering an underwater temple, his treacherous tales within abandoned mines. It was all amazing… but Luna felt something was missing in what he said, there were pieces of evidence something off… as if he wasn’t saying the full story. Steve neglected to mention the dozens upon dozens of deaths that occurred with said adventures, but he feared he might spook Luna with mentioning his unique ability to deny death… he learned that he was the only being in his world that’s unable to die permanently. He later discovered he could make some of the items he mentioned through his thoughts, starting off by making a bucket of milk and cookies appear, one for him and for Luna. She raised her brow at the bucket of milk, but Steve explained that cups weren’t a thing in his world, so the only thing to drink out of was buckets and potion bottles. Steve didn’t need to drink water, but it gave a soothing feeling whenever he drank after an intense hot day. “These cookies indeed go well with this milk, though the taste is based off your own taste-buds, so it is hard to say how they’d actually taste,” said Luna. “Maybe I could make one for you if I get the right ingredients,” said Steve, munching on a cookie. “Oh, I’m also going to that forest near town with the girls, I was originally planning to go alone, but Twilight insisted she and the others come.” “The Everfree? Well if you are going there, I suggest you try checking the castle within that forest, it was originally the old home of my sister and I.” “Really? That’s good to know… by the way, is it possible I will be able to dream every night… I want to see how far I get bring things from my past memories into here.” “Well, seeing that you were this lucid, you may be able to be this way for all your dreams… strange though for someone who has never dreamed before.” With that said, Steve felt he sensation similar to whenever the night changed to day, seeing he was about to awaken, he said his farewells to Luna as she too said farewell. Soon, Steve found himself awake again, getting out of bed in the basement, he prepped himself by grabbing his belongings for the travel to the Everfree Forest. He grabbed a stack of those Everfree planks, a stack of cobblestone, his leftover healing potions, all his tools, stack of torches, his journal, and he made another crafting table, leaving behind the one he made before in the basement. He also grabbed the amulet given to him by Celestia and Luna, putting it on and feeling the enchantment activating. Going upstairs, he found Twilight ready, he heard her talking to Spike about what supplies they brought along, she turned around and spotted Steve. “I called the girls to meet us by Fluttershy’s place since she lives near the Everfree, that and there’s a path that can take us to the abandoned castle.” “Well that’s good, Luna visited me in my sleep, she told about the Everfree and that castle, apparently it used to be her and Celestia’s old home.” “She did, well that helps to not explain about the history behind that castle, anyway, let’s get going, we have a long way to get there.” Steve left with the two, but quickly looked at both Twilight and Spike, specifically the outfits they wore – it looked like some sort of explorer outfits, which he was later told by Twilight what she and Spike wore. They soon reached Flutershy’s place, and saw the others with saddlebags on, Steve saw Rarity also wore her own explorer outfit, which looked a little more frilly than Twilight’s. Everypony else only had saddlebags on, with Applejack wearing her stetson. “Okay, even though we’re going to the Everfree to help Steve, I also want to check around, I never got the chance to carefully see the local fauna and environment that’s unique here in the Everfree. We’ll stay by the path that lead to the Castle of Two Sisters, while gathering anything of interest on the way, but be careful, Poison Joke isn’t the only thing we need to be wary of, so if you find something let met know if its safe to touch or not.” Everyone gave their own affirmatives then heading off, once heading inside, Steve picked up anything that caught his interest… which was almost everything in sight. He picked up various flowers – nothing rare, just some wild roses, daisies, and so on – he even found some variation of mushrooms similar to red and brown mushrooms from his world. At some point, the girls – mostly Twilight – panicked when Steve wandered off and touched some Poison Joke, but a new discovery was made about him when this incident happened. The group was halfway to the castle, they just passed Zecora’s hut at some point, Steve was happy to meet somepony who could make potions. The two discussed potion-making and Steve wished to visit Zecora sometime later to see if she could help him make some specific potions. “It was nice of Zecora to help you with making your potions, could I come along when you visit her, I want to see what kind of potions from your world exist?” asked Twilight. “Sure, I’m also curious how this world’s potions differ from my own.” As the group traveled down the path, they came upon a familiar patch of flowers that the girls and Spike, felt uneasy about as they circled around them. “Careful everypony, Poison Joke,” said Applejack. “Ueh, if there’s one flower I wished never exist, it would be these,” said Rarity, staying as far from the foul things. Everyone was too busy from staying away from the flowers, that Steve found the strange blue flowers intriguing, reaching down, he picked up one. Fluttershy noticed Steve was missing, but turning to see where he was, she gasped loudly for everyone to hear and see what was wrong. “Hey girls, what’s these cool looking flowers? Um, girls?” “STEVE DROP THE POISON JOKE! ITS DANGEROUS!” shouted Twilight. Hearing Twilight shout was enough for Steve to drop the Poison Joke, immediately they grabbed Steve away from the flowers and quickly checked him over. Twilight used a spell to check for any form of enchantments, poisons, or magical interference on anyone, for awhile Twilight awaited the results but realized that Steve was clean – the Poison Joke didn’t affect him at the slightest. “What? The Poison Joke… it didn’t effect him the slightest,” said Twilight. Everyone was shocked, Steve went back to pick up the Poison Joke he dropped earlier and put in his inventory, Twilight cast the same spell and also got the same results. For awhile Twilight contemplated this, until she asked Steve to step on some nearby poison ivy real quick, the girls and Spike were worried and asked what Twilight was planning, but she eased their worried to check her suspicions. Soon, Steve stepped on the ivy for a few seconds and stepped off, moments later, Steve began itching like crazy everywhere, Rarity gave him some itching cream, then after awhile the itching stopped and Steve was back to normal. Apparently from Twilight’s own theory, Steve isn’t effected by anything if he touches said object with his own hands, only by walking on, near it, and being touched in turn does it effect him. This made sense, as Steve mentioned collecting cactus with his bare hands, it raised the question how he never got injured, it may had to do with his natural magic being used as a shield to protect him against anything that doesn’t go through a certain impact – a drop by four to five meters is enough to hurt him, less however won’t do anything is good enough example that Steve gave. Later on, they found more items that intrigued Steve, some glowing moss, poisonous mushrooms, some blackberries, and more. Further on, they encountered another problem, in the form of a pack of timberwolves, but that problem was fixed when Steve pulled out his axe and a torch in his other hand. Swinging the torch around, the timberwolves recognized him and skedaddled, wondering what that was all about, Steve explained he encountered those same creatures before and fought them off, now they knew not to mess with him. Afterwards they came upon a familiar river, this time however their other friend Steve Magnet wasn’t around to help. Trying to find a more shallow part of the river to cross, Steve made a different solution; with his ask, he began chopping down one of the Everfree trees, the group watched him cut down a tree for the first time, they saw how parts of the tree – even the leaves – were left floating in the air as he continued to cut the tree from top to bottom. Everfree trees were pretty thick albeit short, but Steve managed to cut down a single tree in seconds, using the gathered logs, he made some of them to planks and made a three meter wide impromptu bridge made of Everfree planks. The girls watched in awe – and confusion – to see Steve’s bridge still stand with no supports whatsoever, internally Twilight was conflicted to see the impossible happen in front of her. Calm down Twilight, this is just like Pinkie – its just Steve being Steve – nothing out of the ordinary here. Heh heehe heheh ehhe. Spike could see the crazed look in her eyes and sighed worriedly. Once the bridge was done, Steve led the group across the bridge, Twilight later further asked about Steve abilities, which involve his natural regeneration when eating, his personal inventory, he can craft certain items by a two-by-two grid rather than his crafting table’s three-by-three grid, and more. However, Steve says that back in his world his abilities were more, limited, while here in Equestria he’s discovering things that he never realized he could do, that and the numerous new things he could find here too. She was amazed the things he was capable of doing and this is what he can do without the help of tools and such. Steve also mentions that when he was given this amulet from the princesses and new pop-up appeared in his inventory which allowed him to equipment. Twilight says that his abilities may be adapting to his new environment to better suit him, rather than given him claws, flight, or natural magic, he was given something that is adaptive based off the situation – the ultimate form of survival ability, to create a solution from one’s surroundings. After this talk, Steve began to think what else he might unlock in this new world, the group soon arrived at the castle, which requires them to cross the suspension bridge – which Steve states he could make a way better bridge. While the group talked about going in pairs to explore the castle, Steve examines the state of the castle… and an idea forming in his head. I might actually rebuild this castle, would be a nice pet project to do. Soon groups were made, with Applejack with Rainbow, Fluttershy with Pinkie Pie, Rarity with Spike, and Twilight with Steve. Once everyone split apart, Twilight and Steve headed to the castle library, while Twilight simply wanted to see if she can recover any of the books back to the library, with Steve interested in this world’s literature – the only literature he had was any enchanted books or his own written books. “Sorry we couldn’t explore the rest of the castle Steve, I planned to come here to gather any books that could be recoverable, I never understood why Celestia left these books here, I would assume after Luna came back she regather anything worth saving.” “No need to worry, I planned to actually come here first, knowledge is an important thing for my world, considering anything I discovered wrote down in case for reference.” Twilight smiled and happy to know Steve interests for books were similar to hers, soon the two went their separate ways with Twilight checking each book, those readable she put away, those damaged but that could be repaired she cast a preservation spell to bring back to the library, while those that could be fix, she wrote that any parts of the book that could be read for later deciphering. Steve wandered a little until he came upon a book that glowed similar to the enchanted books from his world. Pulling the book out, he looked at the cover which the title said, “Magical Elements”, interested, he placed the book into his inventory. That wasn’t the only book that caught his interest, he found books on maps, history, the three pony races, cooking, and even a book on myths and fairy tales. At some point, Steve told Twilight he wanted to explore the rest of the castle by himself, Twilight nods and tells him to come back to lobby once it reached mid-day, Steve nods and leaves the library. Steve examined the walls, tapestries, and faded paintings of various individuals and settings of unknown lands. At some point, Steve found some stairs that led to some sort of open room, there were holes, shattered windows, and some sort of platform. There were also some scorch marks oddly enough, they looked recent, but at least a year old. Something must had happened here recently, hmmm, what’s that? Steve spotted something glinting under the light of the sun, at a glance it looked like a piece of ebony metal of sort, it looked like a piece of helmet or something, but it was warped so badly it was hard to imagine its original shape. The reason Steve took an interest was because whenever he looked at it, he felt the same feeling he had when he gazed down at the Void whenever he was in the End. Picking up the piece of metal, all he got was a weird ominous title… which really did answer what he was holding. ???Unknown??? “The heck?” After looking around for more of the strange object, he found nothing else and soon returned to the lobby, where he soon met up with the others. They all headed back to town, each of them talking about what they found while in the castle, Steve mentioning he found some books and some strange metal. Twilight was curious and asked what he found, which he showed her, she said she wasn’t certain what that was either and soon they returned back to town in just a few hours. When they came back to town they came upon an interesting sight, when they neared town, they saw a crowd of ponies holding up picket signs with various phrases on the signs. The phrases said many things, but were all related to one thing, the phrases all being directed at their newest resident, Steve. None of them were positive and the group could easily tell that this wasn’t good, but it was strange that ponies were this mean to Steve even though he hasn’t be around that long, not only that he hasn’t been publicly introduced to Twilight’s knowledge, the only ones to know his existence is the princesses, the girls, Spike and maybe some of the townsfolk of Ponyville. Soon the crowd spotted Steve and began to approach the group, aggressively waving their signs at them. Pinkie noticed an unfamiliar stallion leading the group, who she never met before and knew he wasn’t a resident of Ponyville – current or before. “That pony there isn’t a local in town and he’s the one leading everypony else! That meanie needs to leave Steve alone!” said Pinkie, her cheeks puffed up. “Yeah, who is this dude!” “Let’s find out,” said Twilight, with the others approach the crowd. Steve on the other hand was just confused, having not encountering others, his social interactions were limited so he had no idea what was going on, he recognized the signs but didn’t understand the purpose the crowd were using the signs for – he understood the words were meant for him, but the fact they were negative response flew over his head. “We will not let accept this strange creature to stay, if he won’t leave, we’ll make him leave!” The crowd yelled in agreement, but after hearing his words, Applejack felt a tingling feeling in her fur – this pony was lying through his teeth, he could care less about Steve, yet he wanted him to leave. Storming up to the stallion, Applejack gritted her teeth in anger. “WHAT’S THE MEANING OF ALL THIS!? WHY ARE ALL OF YOU PONIES WANT STEVE TO LEAVE, HE HADN’T DONE NOTHIN TO ANY OF YOU!” “He’s a monster, all he wants to do is bring mayhem and destruction to our homes and lively-hoods!” Applejack could see it was one of the flower girls, but couldn’t see where the other two were which was strange. Soon Applejack and the others heard even more wild and exaggerated rumors about Steve, one involving him summoning Discord, another of him being the one responsible for turning Luna evil, and even one which he hates puppies. “Are you ponies crazy! Steve has only been here for two days and he’s been in Canterlot yesterday and the Everfree today, how the heck could he done any of those things when we been him most of the time!” shouted Rainbow. Soon the crowd began to realize that all the things they said and heard were pretty crazy and soon the crowd dispersed, but a few still kept a frown directed at Steve. The stallion who led the crowd, trotted off with a scowl, turning around to face the girls. “He’ll bring nothing but trouble, you’ll regret trying to help that foul creature!” Soon the stallion vanished around the corner of a building, which Rainbow tried to follow only to find him vanished. “The heck? Where he go!?” “Don’t worry about him Rainbow, I should report this to Celestia, I think somepony might be against the idea of Steve being here. Sorry about all that Steve, Steve?” Steve gave a confused look, which he explained he had no idea what that entire thing was all about, soon Twilight explained those ponies were against him staying in town, which further made him confused. Sighing in turn, Twilight explained it best he go back to the library, while Steve went back, the girls decided to discuss about what recently happen and find out who that stallion was. Heading back to the library with Spike, the two entered the library, with Spike yawning, feeling tired from mostly walking for the day, heading back upstairs. Heading back to the basement, Steve put back some of the items he found and popped open his journal to write down the latest journal entry for today. Day 2 – Yesterday, I went to a city called Canterlot with Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the city has buildings made of marble, similar to nether quartz when shaped into blocks. We met two princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they asked me some questions and gave me something to speak with, I can’t fully understand how it works, but it uses my thoughts so others can hear me. Today I decided explore the forest nearby called the Everfree Forest, I found various things that caught my interest and then, we explored an abandoned castle that once belonged to Luna and her sister; there was some interesting books and I find some strange metallic shard, I might ask Luna about what it is. Once done writing Steve sighed and put away his journal, after awhile he went deep into his thoughts until he planned what to do next, checking his inventory and the contents in his chest, his next plan of action was one of the few activities that he practiced from the very beginning of his existence. Time to get mining. > Chapter 4 Rewrite - Exploring The Everfree > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equestria; Ponyville, Ponyville Train Station; Late Afternoon The train began to slow down, coming to a halt before the station’s platform, the doors opening as passengers exited the train. Steve exited alongside the girls and Spike, some of them carried some items they got from Canterlot, Rarity bringing a lot of items which doubled the original number of cases she had brought with her when they left Ponyville. Everypony departed from one another, heading back home or do their jobs in town, Steve followed Twilight and Spike back to the library. Once the trio got inside, Steve took his time to quickly examine his inventory, until heading back outside when he was stopped by Twilight. “Uhm, Steve? Where are you going?” asked Twilight. “I’m planning to explore that forest near town, while I was there when I first popped into this world, I never got the chance to fully explore the place, so I thought I spend the rest of the day doing that.” Steve noticed the look of apprehension in Twilight’s eyes, but she tried her best to keep a calm look. “Steve, I don’t know how forests are like in your world, but the Everfree is no ordinary forest, its full of deadly fauna, creatures that will either eat you, turn you to stone, or worse, and the weather within the forest is unnatural, chaotic even. While I’m certain you can handle yourself… wouldn’t it be better for you to handle going there in the morning, it’s almost evening soon.” Thinking about Twilight’s suggestion to postpone his exploring, he knew there were heavy risks to traveling at night, especially when he’s this ill equipped, that and he was exploring very unknown territory. Nodding in agreement, Steve stepped away from the library’s door, making Twilight sigh in relaxation. “Okay, I suppose waiting until tomorrow is better than nothing.” “Thank you Steve, this actually gives me the chance to come with you, I’ll invite the girls if you need our help and to guide you through the Everfree,” said Twilight. “Spike, could you write some quick messages to the girls to prepare tomorrow morning to head to the Everfree and to meet up near Fluttershy’s.” Spike saluted, pulling out quill and parchment, heading upstairs to do what he was asked to do. Seeing that he now had a free schedule again, Steve thought what he could do to occupy his time. Heading downstairs to his space, he placed down his crafting table in a corner and began making a chest to put most of his stuff away, a furnace, and then he opened his journal. Steve began writing down things he may need in the future. Need iron for armor and equipment, wool to make a bed – the one Twilight gave me is nice, but it doesn’t give that same feeling I’m familiar with the beds I make – and at some point I’m going have to leave Twilight’s home… maybe I should ask if there’s any free land I can use to make my home away from home. With that, Steve had a clear picture of what he plans to do after his exploration of the Everfree; taking his equipment, some torches, journal, potions, and amulet, Steve headed upstairs to speak to Twilight. Twilight was organizing some of the books when she spotted Steve coming from the basement, Steve approached her, waving to get her attention first. “Yes Steve, need something?” asked Twilight. “I was hoping to ask you where I can find some items I need, I’m looking where to look for some iron and wool. Also, while I’m thankful for you letting me live here, I was hoping to find some free land I can use to make my own home.” Steve saw Twilight showing a deep look of thought, until she smiled in remembering something. “Well, I’m not certain about iron, only the mining and guard handle all forms of metal, you either have to have connections with either two or find, mine, and smelt it yourself.” “I prefer doing the work myself and I don’t exactly have anything worth trading to buy metal off anyone.” I could ask Princess Celestia to get the metal for Steve… but I don’t think he’s the kind of being who want someone to do something for him, he definitely enjoys the moment rather than the goal. “Then I suppose you should ask Spike, he goes with Rarity sometimes to this area to look for gems, I’m certain you can find some metals there too. As for the wool, ask Fluttershy, I’m certain she can her sheep friends for the wool, however you’re going need to ask a specialist to cut the wool since Fluttershy either lets their wool shed or only shaves enough so their comfortable.” “Where does the wool she shaves and gathers go?” Opening her snout to answer, she swiftly closed as she placed a hoof on her snout in thought. “Huh, I have no idea, you should ask her, maybe she might have enough leftover wool for you to use.” Steve nodded, now having to ask Spike and Fluttershy for the items he needs, this left one final thing to be answered. “As for free land… I need to talk to Mayor Mare about this, I’ll also handle any payments to buy the land, but what about materials?” “Don’t worry, I’ll handle that, but I’ll ask you where I can find any items I need for construction.” With that done, Twilight and Steve decided to talk some more – their respective worlds, Ponyville, Twilight herself, Steve’s hobbies, and so on. Time went by quicker than both realized, until it was already dark outside, with few ponies meandering in the night. Deciding to take an early night, Steve said good night to Twilight, heading downstairs, slipping into the bed’s sheets, falling in deep sleep once more. Dream Realm, Steve’s Dream; Timeless Steve opened his eyes once more and found himself back into what he clearly knew was his dream, he stood on the same hill with the single tree. This was the second time he became – what Luna called – lucid within his dream, though didn’t faze him at the slightest. “Hello again, Steve, how is the gift that my sister and I gave to you?” asked Luna, smiling. “Hey Luna and the gift is awesome, I got used to it pretty quickly. Say, I’m planning to go to the Everfree Forest, you got any advice you can give when I go there?” “The Everfree, well, deep within those woods is the old home of my sister and I, other than that, you should be careful of the local timberwolves and a particular flower called Poison Joke, very nasty thing.” Steve listened to Luna personal experience and history of the Everfree, afterwards, the two decided to talk a little bit more and Steve showing Luna some things from his world. Luna witnessed some memories from Steve, seeing him explore the depths of the ocean with the help of some water-breathing enchantments. She saw Steve explore underground systems, abandoned mining shafts, crevices, and much more. Looking through the memories, Luna noticed a particular memory which was sealed behind a strange rectangular portal. The portal itself was made of obsidian, but wasn’t active, curious Luna approached the portal when Steve stopped her from approaching. “That’s… somewhere you don’t want to go too…” Luna would question what’s beyond that portal, but she could feel the unease coming from Steve, understanding his worry, she stepped away. “Thank you for letting me speak to Steve, sadly I have to depart, I have other responsibilities I must take care. Rest easy, Steve, sweet dreams.” Watching her leave beyond white portal, Steve found himself alone once more, facing an empty stretch of land, Steve summoned some Everfree planks. “Now then, let’s see how my future home should look like, should it be two or three stories tall?” Equestria; Ponyville, Golden Oaks Library; Morning Waking up once more, the only light visible was the soft glow from the torch Steve placed just above himself. Just like back home, the torch didn’t leave behind any embers which scorched or burned the wooden surface of the basement. Getting out of bed, Steve opened his chest to see what items he should bring with him today, once done with his morning rituals he headed upstairs. Opening the basement door to the main room, he found Twilight speaking to Spike who head some sort of scroll. “Is that everything on the list Spike?” asked Twilight, carrying some saddle-bags. “Yep and don’t worry Twilight I checked the list three times to be certain, we’re ready to go.” “Alright, now we just need to- Oh, Steve, you’re up!” Steve waved toward both Twilight and Spike, after quickly grabbing a sandwich Spike prepped earlier, the three headed off. Making their way through town, past the park and beyond a bridge, they soon approached a quaint cottage surrounded by various birdhouses. Just some distance from the cottage near a path that leads to the Everfree, is Twilight’s friends. While Applejack and Rainbow Dash wore nothing with Applejack wearing her signature stetson, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity each wore some saddlebags. While Fluttershy was a simple one, Pinkie’s looked something she would definitely wear, that and the fact she kept pulling various objects that couldn’t fit in such a small space gave Twilight a migraine, as for Rarity, hers were… flamboyant. They gave a slight sparkle to them under the sunlight, alongside her saddlebags she wore a hat worn when traveling the jungles and an outfit also matching said hat. “Is everypony ready?” All the girls gave their own affirmations and nods, till Twilight turned to face Steve who raised his appendage with a slight pump of his arm pointed upward. With that, the group made their way through the Everfree; since the path of the Everfree was designed for quadrupedal creatures in mind, there wasn’t enough space for everyone to fit through. To solve this problem, everyone was put into pairs then two columns, Twilight and Rarity were in the lead, followed by Steve and Spike, then Applejack and Pinkie, finally in the back is Rainbow and Fluttershy. There are various paths to take when entering the Everfree, there’s the one at Sweet Apple Acres, the one near Fluttershy’s cottage, another just some distance from Ponyville, and so on across other parts of Equestria. The reason they took the path near Fluttershy’s was because its the one many of them are familiar with, as it led past Zecora’s hut and straight-forward path to the Castle of Two Sisters. Along the way, they encountered many obstacles, one involved having to cross a river, which was solved as Steve showed his excellent building skills – that and he managed to make a bridge in less than two minutes. Twilight was baffled at seeing this while, Applejack was pretty impressed how fast he built it out of simple wooden planks as the Apple family are pretty known to quickly building something in an instant. Another incident was them facing some timberwolves that were easily scared off by Steve and Rainbow, simply pulling out a torch and waving said torch was enough to show them not to mess with him. The group encountered various plants which Steve took the time to gather, he also chopped down some trees that either grew near the path or fell down on top of it. Some blackberries, poisonous mushrooms, glowing moss, half a stack of Everfree logs, and some Everfree saplings. At some point, they managed to reach Zecora’s hut, but this also meant that they had faced the Poison Joke patch too… and that’s when something interesting occurred. The group took a break near Zecora’s hut, just some distance, enough for Zecora to feel safe and as a good deterrent against the more aggressive wildlife that wanders within the Everfree, a patch of Poison Joke was located. Twilight and the zebra talked to one another, nobody paying attention to Steve who took a closer examination of the flowers, now Steve has encountered some deadly flora, he’s faced cacti, accidentally ate a wither flower, and stepped on some thorny bushes from a particular berry bush. However, each of these encounters share one common trait, after single punch or couple more, they were easy picking to grab the leftover goodies. This will be no different. Steve knelt down and with a swift quick punch, popped the flower from the ground as it levitated just inches off the ground, spinning calmly in place. Picking up the flower, Steve examined the colors and design up close when a loud gasp from Pinkie got the attention of everyone, which they soon had their gazes from her to Steve. “STEVE! DROP THE POISON JOKE!” shouted Twilight. While spooked Steve’s grip on the flower was still firm as he looked at everyone with a perplexed look, quickly Twilight and Zecora approached but kept their distance from Steve. After convincing him to calmly place the flower down, which he did, but not planting it, leaving it levitating, Twilight did a magical scan to see what sort of effects the flower will have on Steve… only to find nothing. Zecora grabbed a particular brew, asking Steve to drink it then opened his mouth wide open, following her orders, Zecora did her own examinations when some slight awes and hmmms came from the mare. “It may appears your friend is immune to the flower’s joke, but a fright instead,” said Zecora. “What, but… how?” It was then Twilight remembered how Steve explained his abilities, when she came up her own theory. “Maybe… maybe Steve has some sort of magical barrier that surrounds him that protects him from any adverse effects, but this barrier is thin enough to allow him to feel and sense anything around him, something as a gentle pat is enough for the barrier to allow Steve to feel it. Only touching, consuming, or getting struck is enough for the barrier to allow anything to go through.” “Would explain, how Steve can punch them trees without breaking his hands, but when somebody pats him on the back, he can feel it,” said Applejack. “That’s neat, but the dude just went up and grabbed some Poison Joke, without it effecting him!” “Not true Rainbow, if he were to step on it rather than use his internal abilities, I’m certain he would be effected… but as to what will happen…” Many of the girls shudder at the thought, rather than explore that thought, the group prepped to leave when Steve asked Zecora something. “Say, you make potions, do you have a potion-making set and some books I can borrow, I want to try recreating the potions from my world.” “Hmmm, of course, you may use an old set I used as a young filly, with a book for beginners will help indeed. Come back a later day and I shall prep said tools, in time.” “Thanks, I’ll share any recipes I find when I get the chance to.” After that short yet exciting incident, the group headed off once more, until they finally reached their destination. Equestria; Everfree Forest, Castle of the Two Sisters; Mid-Afternoon The group crossed the suspension bridge, after managing to convince Steve to cross and hearing him grumble at the terrible state both the bridge and castle are at. “I think I can fix most of the disrepair of this place, can’t replace anything as intricate like the carpets and paintings, just fill some holes, remove rubble, clean up the garden, and replace that awful excuse for a bridge. I mean, who in their right mind would make and use a bridge like that cross over!” “The way he talks about bridges reminds me of a certain, you know who,” said Applejack, whispering toward Rainbow. The two looked at Twilight, both chuckling, Twilight noticed but didn’t catch what they were talking about. Soon the group entered the dilapidated castle, they went on their own ways, with Rarity going to a room she remembers holding some still intact art and various other things of interest. Fluttershy headed off to the gardens in the back, to speak to the local animals who live in the castle; Pinkie made it her mission to raid the kitchens and then explore other parts of the castle. Rainbow and Applejack decided to explore around and find anything that may catch their interest, this left Steve, Twilight, and Spike to head to the library. “Okay girls, we return as the sun about to set, meet up here in the foyer, alright?” After a quick affirmative, they all went on their separate paths, with Twilight, Steve, and Spike heading up the stairs to the castle’s library. Entering inside, the smell of old paper and mold lingered in the air, once finding a spot to set up, the trio began searching through the many shelves filled with books. While Spike helped Twilight, Steve decided to do his own searching, looking through the books on the shelves, many didn’t had any title and opening them revealed nothing much of interest. Some books were so old, they were practically unreadable, while others barely held together. Continuing his search, Steve found a particular book that seemed to glow and emanate some sort of unknown power, it was the same feeling he get from enchanting books from his world, only slightly different. Pulling the book from the shelf it was on, Steve stared at the title with great interest. Magical Elements, huh. Having found a book of interest, Steve placed in his inventory for later reading, soon he found other books while not as magical as the one he found were just as interesting. A book on maps of Equestria, one about Equestrian history, and another about the three pony tribes. While these books were definitely outdated, information is information regardless of what point in time they were written. At some point, Steve decided to explore on his own, leaving Twilight and Spike in the library. “Remember, return to the foyer when the sun begins to set, don’t forget this!” “Gotcha, see yeah later!” With his farewell, Steve explored the ancient halls of the castle, at some point Steve made a crafting table and chest, placing them both by the foyer entrance. As he stated earlier, Steve began to fix what damage to the castle there was to find; he began to dig whatever rubble he found, from it he got some cobblestone and a new item – Blackstone. Apparently the castle was made from this blackstone material, it was very hard, definitely iron-level hardness, so far he could only dig the rubble but when encountered a wall of blackstone or a fallen pillar made of the material, he could only climb over rather than through it. Any holes he found he would use the Everfree logs, make some planks and fill in the holes, he would plan to find this blackstone material, but he would need to get iron to mine the stuff most likely. Any vegetation he found, he cleared, though he didn’t get any seeds from any. After heading down a hall, he found a staircase that led up, heading up, he found himself in sort of hall with windows and pillars parallel from each other. Their various signs to show something occurred here, but rather than investigate Steve focused on fixing the damage, he left the windows alone until he got the necessary glass. While cleaning up, he found something interesting, on the ground was this strange black metallic object, picking it up, he went to see what it was. ??? All Steve received is three question marks the glowed a dark blue color, he also noticed a strange miasma seemed to seep out, but so far it didn’t do anything damage or statue effects, so Steve was alright with holding on it. Deciding he was done cleaning this area, he decided to explore other parts, though some areas he couldn’t fix due to not having the right tools or some wild animals living there. Steve made several trips back to the chest, until at some point it was reaching sunset and soon the group met up back in the foyer. “I noticed when I cam back, there was some holes filled in what appears to be planks, was that you Steve dear?” asked Rarity. “Yep, spent the day fixing what I can around the castle.” “Cool! It feels less drafty in here now!” “That’s nice of you to fix the castle Steve, I could ask Celestia and Luna if they can give you the required materials to repair the castle, I feel like this sort of place needs a renovation after being left abandoned for so long.” “Well, could you ask them where I can find something called blackstone, apparently this castle is made of the stuff is too hard for my stone pickaxe to break it. Need iron for me to be able to both gather and clear any debris made of the stuff.” After that, the group made their way out, with Steve once more having to cross the suspension bridge with a deep grumble. Their way out of the Everfree was much quicker, especially since Steve clear the path enough for the group to make their way through without much issue. When they got back to town through the entrance near Ponyville, they began to hear and notice some sort of commotion happening in town. “What in the world is going on over there?” asked Applejack. The group came upon what appeared to be a mob of ponies holding picket signs with various sayings about a certain Crafter. The ponies were all locals of the town, but one pony in particular who appeared to be the ringleader was riling them all up, though none of the girls recognized him. “Hey, that pony isn’t anypony I know of!” shouted Pinkie. “Why he’s trying to be so mean to Steve!?” Steve was simply perplexed, due to his living alone having little interaction, with the only interaction he ever had was with his animals and the villagers, he had no idea what was going on nor the implications of the situation. One of the mob members saw Steve and soon they all approached like a tidal wave, each one saying something negative about Steve… except the accusations went from absurd to just outright false. “DOWN WITH THE MONSTER! HE’LL DESTROY OUR HOMES!” “I HEARD HE’S DISCORD’S MINION AND WILL BRING CHAOS UPON US ALL!” “HE’LL SNATCH AWAY FOALS AND FILLIES, THEN TAKE THEM AWAY TO SOMEWHERE HORRIBLE!” “HE SHOOT LASERS FROM HIS EYES AND SUMMON LIGHTNING!” At this point, Twilight had enough, enhancing her voice with magic and speaking. “WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!? YOU ALL SAY SUCH FALSE THINGS ABOUT STEVE, EVEN THOUGH HE’S ONLY BEEN HERE FOR A FEW DAYS! HE’S BARELY EVEN MET ANYPONY YET AND YOU ALREADY ARE THIS JUDGMENTAL OF HIM! LET’S NOT FORGET WHAT HAPPENED WHEN ZECORA TRIED TO COME TO TOWN, DO WE WANT A SIMILAR INCIDENT!” Twilight panted after having to use her voice and magic, for awhile the mob calmed down a lowered their signs soon dispersing. The stallion who led the group barely said a word, but soon left without a single word, making his way to the train station, back to who knows where. “Who do you think that stallion was and why he was inciting the crowd like that?” asked Rarity. “Whoever he was, if I see him again, I’ll pummel his face for making Steve look bad!” shouted Rainbow. “Please don’t hurt anypony Rainbow, we don’t want to cause anymore trouble now.” Soon the group, decided to do some investigating, after Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie quickly headed home to drop off some things, Twilight gave Spike her saddlebags. “Spike, can you and Steve head back to the library for now, I need to see what happened while we were away with the mayor.” Afterwards, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow made their way to town hall, leaving both the dragon and Crafter to their own devices. Heading back to the library, Spike carried Twilight saddlebags upstairs, yawning to himself. “I’m going to put this away and take a nap, you go do what you want for the rest of the day Steve, see yeah,” said Spike. Watching the drake go up the stairs, Steve headed back downstairs, after putting away some the items he brought along with him – Steve left he blackstone he got from the rubble in the chest back at the castle – Steve pulled out his journal and began writing. Day 2 – Yesterday, I went to a city called Canterlot with Twilight Sparkle and her friends, the city has buildings made of marble, similar to nether quartz when shaped into blocks. We met two princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they asked me some questions and gave me something to speak with, I can’t fully understand how it works, but it uses my thoughts so others can hear me. Today I decided to explore the forest nearby called the Everfree Forest, I found various things that caught my interest and then, we explored an abandoned castle that once belonged to Luna and her sister; there was some interesting books and I find some strange metallic shard, I might ask Luna about what it is when I go to sleep. After done writing down, what he done yesterday and today down, Steve began to think what he should do next, after some thinking, Steve pulled out some items from his chest, made a few pickaxes just in case and headed back upstairs. Time to go mining. > Chapter 5 - Miner's Delight > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equestria; Ponyville, Town Hall; Late Afternoon Twilight who was followed by Applejack and Rainbow headed to town hall, at some point the others managed to catch up with the trio and they all went together. Approaching the build located center of town, they entered inside, only to find a kerfuffle happening. Mayor Mare was in the middle of talking to her assistant, an annoyed look on her face, she faced away from her assistant when she spotted Twilight and company. Approaching Celestia’s student, she sighed and smoothed her mane and coat, smiling back toward Twilight. “Hello Miss Sparkle, is there something I can help you?” asked Mare. “Oh, well, what was that all about with your assistant mayor?” “Ah yes… that, you see a certain pony just came back to town and is back to causing a ruckus as usual. When I just got wind he was just here while I was in the middle of a meeting, I was of course upset that I couldn’t stop his antics once more.” This surprised Twilight, apparently the mayor knew who this stallion in question was, deciding to get the point, Twilight spoke up. “Mayor, we here because this pony was seen gathering a mob to negatively impact our newest resident Steve. What exactly was he planning to do by getting the townsfolk to dislike Steve?” “Well… its not Steve he wants out.” Now this peaked the girls curiosity, deciding to explain things, Mare coughed, straightening her tie. You see, back when I was the secretary of the previous mayor, that same stallion has always come to town to cause a ruckus, no matter how minor it is. My predecessor made it clear to make sure this stallion leaves the premises or at the very least watch his movements, this pony belongs to a lineage of nobles who have some sort of vendetta against the town of Ponyville and its inhabitants. For as long as I can remember his family has been trying to buy the land which Ponyville stands on, to what reason I and my predecessor have no clue. I would do something, but because he’s nobility and his deep connections, any attempts to arrest or charge him will result a lawsuit the size of a mansion – it would be both a waste of money and time to get him through the law system. Other than that, he and his family has been trying to find ways to get the townsfolk to leave the town, turning this place into a ghost town… sadly, there are some individuals who will not budge regardless. Other than the Apple family considering Ponyville as their family’s birthplace, the Rich Family share the same thoughts as the Apples, that and their own connections allow them to keep a strong grasp on the town. There’s also the fact Ponyville is home to several heroines… would be difficult to buy or evict an entire town’s citizens when one of said citizens is the princess’s student. Twilight was shocked, she’s been living in town for a good while and this has been happening behind her back, heck she could see the absolute shock on Applejack’s face, meaning even she didn’t knew about this. “Mayor Mare, is it possible that we can look through the town archives, maybe there’s something we can find to give us clues to what exactly this noble family is trying to gain from buying Ponyville and what caused this vendetta in the first place?” “Go ahead, I been trying to sift through those archives, but with trying to manage town finances and day-to-day problems, I never got the chance to. While you’re there, could maybe organize the archives, your organizational skills would be a blessing,” said Mare, pleadingly. Smiling giddily, Twilight nodded. “I’d be honored!” Soon the girls headed off to the archives, hoping to search for some evidence or something about this noble family in question. Approaching the doors to archives the group began to think what exactly they’ll find in the archives. “Great, we’re going to sift through piles of papers, this is going to be boooring!” “Oh come now Rainbow dear, how bad can it be?” Opening the doors, an avalanche of papers nearly drowned Rarity as she quickly took a step back. Twilight’s eye twitched at seeing the sheer disorder and chaos of the documents in piles and splayed out on each other. Quiet mumbling could be heard from the bookish mare, feeling another migraine coming up from the number of absurd and crazy events that happened in the past few days. “As I said before, boring,” said Rainbow, grumbling. Equestria; Ponyville, Golden Oaks Library; Late Afternoon Before Steve headed off to go mining he spent a good hour, reading the books he gathered, specifically he was looking through the book on maps to see if he can find anything that might help. However just as he guessed, the maps didn’t show anything remotely recent or familiar; one page of the book showed an area of the Everfree and blank piece of land where Ponyville would be now. Well this is troubling, how am I to know where I can find a rich area to mine some iron and other metals? Thinking to himself, Steve put the book away into his chest, contemplating his next move. Usually he wander some random direction dig down or into a mountain and hollow the thing of all its available, coal, iron, gold, and other stuff. Steve couldn’t do that with him being in familiar territory and he didn’t want to dig a hole in the middle of town. I can imagine me digging up and appear in somebody’s home or worse. Deciding this situation required additional help, since he had no idea where Twilight is, he decided to go to the next closest person, Spike. Heading upstairs to the upper room, Steve realized he’s never been up here before and if he should be allowed up here. Thinking for a bit Steve decided that he didn’t worry, as he just need to ask for some help, he won’t touch anything in Twilight’s room. Once he reach the door to upstairs, he opened it to find Spike awake reading a comic book, which he swiftly put down to see who opened the door. “Oh hey Steve, need something?” “Yeah, but weren’t you resting earlier?” “I was, but I didn’t get as tired as I thought, anyway what you’re here for?” Steve explained to Spike he needed help to find somewhere he could mine for materials, Twilight mentioned he went with Rarity to somewhere to look for gems and thought he would show him where it is. Spike looked thoughtful for moment then nodded, quickly getting up and putting his comic away. “Sure, I was actually thinking of getting some more gems for myself, and maybe get some for Rarity,” said Spike, getting a dreamy-look near the end of his sentence. After quickly gathering a bag and what appeared to be a miner’s helmet, Spike headed off with Steve following behind him. The two left the library, passed town hall, crossed a bridge heading west, then followed path until they reached a flat area devoid of grass and dirt, just bare stone. During their walk they talked about each other, interests, and some other things, until finally arriving at their destination. Looking up at the sky, the sun was still up but was nearing sundown any second, Steve looked to Spike, then the sky once more. “Thanks for bringing me here, but looks like its getting dark. You should head back, I remember the path now so you don’t need to come with me.” “Nah, I think I’ll join you, don’t know how long Twilight will take to investigate that pony, but if its Twilight it’ll be awhile, that and I got some extra sleep when Twilight told me we were going to the Everfree. Let’s go!” Nodding Steve pulled out his pickaxe and began to mine downwards, creating a three-by-one space. As Spike followed he remembered something he should mention to Steve before they continue any further. “Oh I almost forgot, there’s a local pack of Diamond Dogs, you should be careful around this area, we dealt with that, but I don’t want to get in any trouble or walk into their territory, okay,” said Spike. “Gotcha! Also, while I’m mining, could you place these torches as we go down, no need to worry about spacing, just do it when it gets too dark.” Spike nodded, while he could see perfectly in the dark, Spike knew Steve would have trouble seeing, handing Spike his torches, something interesting happened. While Steve can stack items in his inventory – in-hand and off-hand – he wonder what would happen to giving a stack of items to somebody who doesn’t have his abilities… well the result was not good. The moment Steve handed what appeared to be one torch, suddenly dozens of torches sprung up, nearly flooring Spike back. Quickly gathering his torches with one wave of hand, Steve rethought his decision. “I think you should hold onto sixteen for now, keep the rest in your backpack, luckily they don’t appear to be lit until you hold them firmly and place them on a surface. Welp, let’s get back to digging,” said Steve, returning to mining. Spike nodded, placing the remaining torches and holding the one, which lit up with a blaze, following Steve, placing a torch on the wall to his left every several meters down. The two followed this pattern for awhile until Spike needed more torches, heading deeper and deeper into the ground. Equestria; Ponyville, Town Hall; Evening For the last six hours, they spent six hours sifting through document after document, first it was document from the a few years back, then a decade, then two decades, then nearly two centuries. Even though their main goal was to find any clues about this noble family, Twilight was too frustrated about how unorganized the town archives to focus on that one thing. “WHY IS SOMETHING FROM TWO DECADES AGO IS IN THE CABINET FROM FIVE DECADES AGO!? HOW COME BOTH THESE DOCUMENTS HAVE NO DATE, DOESN’T ANYPONY DATE THEIR DOCUMENTS!?” screamed Twilight, pulling her mane. “Twilight, calm down, we can worry about all that later, right now we need to figure out which noble is trying to buy Ponyville. I ain’t letting some no good varmint take away my home,” said Applejack, ruffling through more papers. Continuing their search, they steadily began making a dent, until they found something. Fluttershy began to sift through some papers, when she came upon an interesting folder going back nearly five years after Ponyville was founded. “Um girls… I think I found something,” said Fluttershy, meekly. Even though her voice was quiet, Fluttershy managed to get their attention – well she prodded Rainbow, who got everypony to listen. “HEY FLUTTERS FOUND SOMETHING!” Thanking her friend, Fluttershy handed the folder to Twilight, who opened it, looking inside, she gasped at the contents inside. “What what, did you find something Twi?” asked Pinkie, hopping. “Oh I found something indeed, apparently, this document states that Ponyville was never meant for the Apple family.” “What hogwash are you saying Twi, my family was personally hoofed that land by Celestia herself to my great-grandpappy and great-grandma?” Twilight placed the documents within the folder on a thankfully cleared table, showing everypony what she read. So to summarize, the land was meant to be given as a reward to a lord for his deeds at the time, apparently he stopped an incursion of beasts that came from Everfree from spreading too far. Its unclear what happened, but in short, the land couldn’t be given due to some complications, it was only two months later that the lord had enough resources to fully accept the land… however it was too late. Seeing how the land that was meant to be given to him wasn’t being immediately accepted, Celestia decided to give the land to those who need it immediately. In that moment, Applejack’s great-grandfather, arrived to Canterlot with his family when they met Princess Celestia. Seeing their current situation, Celestia gave them the land which would later become Ponyville. When the lord found out, well he was obviously furious, at the time the southern parts of Equestria weren’t fully explored so Appleloosa, Dodge Junction, and Las Pegasus weren’t a thing yet. There’s also evidence that the land around and below Ponyville is rich in gems, rich soil, plenty of forests, and plenty of land, perfect to create a settlement. Another interesting thing is that this lord and his family are known to collect artifacts way back when Celestia and Luna ruled together. My guess is that he wanted that land so desperately because its the closest location to the Castle of Two Sisters. There’s been rumors that this particular noble family has been summoning creatures from other worlds… though the evidence is very slim. It says here they tried to steal or ruin Granny Smith’s Zap Apple Jam, but they failed. “How come this hasn’t went straight to the princesses yet?” asked Rarity. “To think a noble from Canterlot would go so low to do this.” “Well there’s many variables, but at the time Ponyville has become what it is now yet, imagine trying to bring this kind of evidence a lord who has resources, connections, and the might to back it up. I don’t think Granny Smith or her family would have a chance against that kind of power.” Applejack frowned but nodded in agreement, even today her family still has financial issues and gathering enough apples. Going against a lord who can swiftly end her family was not a good image to think of. “I need to bring this forth to the princesses, they need to know something this serious is happening behind their backs, within one of their older noble families no less,” said Twilight. “Hey, Twi… does it mention which noble family is responsible for this?” asked Applejack, curious. Looking through the documents, Twilight found the name of the lord who was to receive this land originally. “Somepony by the name of Lord Crimson Blade from the Nebula noble-line, they’re a unicorn noble family dating way back from pre-Equestria, back when the three tribes split apart. Their known for creating military tactics and spells for the unicorn tribe, until all three tribes united, they went into obscurity. They’re the few families that have connections from pre-Equestria to become nobles, but out of all these families they been the most seclusive… Maybe the princesses might know something about them and help with this situation.” The girls nod, seeing how late it is they decide to call it a day and head back home. While Twilight is heading back home, she has a bad feeling about what she’s learned today, especially that a very ancient noble-line is doing something as shady as just for some land. Unless… its not the land their after… then what are they after then? Equestria; Outskirts of Ponyville; Evening Spike wasn’t certain how long they were underground, at some point Steve found a natural cave system, which the two began exploring, with Spike holding a torch while Steve mined… if there was anything he could mine. Steve found some small clusters of coal veins, but no iron whatsoever, the two did encounter a ton of gems of various color and size, but none of them peaked Steve’s attention. While searching, they found something that deeply interested but annoyed Steve. Staring at the massive clusters of gold, emeralds, lapis lazuli, and diamonds is a dream come true… if it weren’t for the fact, there was not a single inkling of iron to be seen for him to use and mine all these glorious goodies. Steve sat down in defeat staring at the glorious jewels of the underground, sighing to himself. Spike on the other hand, grabbed and dug whatever jewels he could with ease, until seeing how dejected he is. “Hey Steve, what’s wrong?” asked Spike. “Well you see, I’m able to make certain tools based off what material I used, my stone pickaxe can easily dig through stone and gather coal and iron, but metals like gold, diamond, and emeralds… require an iron pickaxe… Now imagine I find a whole cluster of these rare materials… but not a lick of iron anywhere for me to use and smelt!” Spike could somewhat understand what Steve was talking about, the closest analogy he could think of for himself is if a comic book store had all the known comics in the world, but not the one he needs the most… or something like that. Seeing how upset Steve is, Spike decides to help him out, without Steve noticing, Spike approaches the cluster of diamonds, chipping away the stone until he grabs a handful of the shiny blue rocks. Turning to face Steve, he hands them to Steve outstretched hand, for a short time nothing happens, but realization comes to his eyes as he stares at the diamonds now in his hands. “How…” “We dragons can dig through anything and eat gems like candy, digging out a few diamonds isn’t much a problem for me, how about I’ll handle the digging and you mine us a way through, deal.” Spike smiled, but noticed Steve was silent, too silent, looking up at Steve, his focus was only on the diamonds – the three pieces of diamond that Spike just gave him. “Um, Steve, you alright?” Like wind, Steve stood up and immediately ran to the crafting table he made earlier while he was back at the library. Grabbing some left over wood to make some sticks, Steve began to create one of the greatest tools to use when mining or collecting obsidian. Spike watched in awe as Steve raised his newest tool – a diamond pickaxe. Turning around with a grin, he faced the once impossible to collect cluster of rare materials with a feral smile. “Oh thank you Spike, now then… LET’S GET MINING!” Steve raised his pickaxe, then lowering it down once more. Several intense mining moments later… Steve had dug so much that he had to make a second diamond pickaxe, but it was all worth it. Twelve stacks of gold ore, six stacks of diamonds, eight stacks of lapis lazuli, and three stacks of emeralds. There’s also the stack and half of coal I got and some of these other gems I found, don’t know what use they’ll have though. Both Steve and Spike returned to the hole that’ll lead up, Steve blocked the cave system with some cobblestone, until he placed down the crating table he made before and two chests to store all the things he mined. Since Steve couldn’t carry everything with him, he only took two stacks of gold ore, three stacks of diamonds, two stacks of lapis lazuli, one stack of emeralds, all the coal he dug, and the various gems he also dug alongside the other things he was digging. “There, hopefully this stuff will still be here once I come back here a later date. Thanks for helping me Spike,” said Steve. “I really did nothing, all I did was show where to go, no biggie,” said Spike. “Oh come now, if it weren’t for you I’d be unable to dig all that stuff. How about you take some of things I dug, what you want?” Spike was going to say no but he been staring at those emeralds, as emerald were his favorite to eat out all the gems. Seeing this too, Steve reached down and counted how much to give Spike, he decided on sixteen as Steve was feeling generous. Handing the gems to a surprised Spike, he looked up at the Crafter who only smiled in turn. “Th-Thanks Steve!” “No problem, now let’s head back before Twilight worries about your whereabouts.” With that said and done, the two began to climb out, once they reached the top, Steve covered the entrance to his mining tunnel with some cobblestone. It was dark now with the moon high above, luckily the moon was at its peak so the light of the moon was enough for both dragon and Crafter to see perfectly. Heading back to town, the two soon approached the library, seeing the lights on inside. “Uh oh, Twilight’s home, she’s not going to be happy you let me go with you this late at night.” “I’ll take the blame, no need for her to get upset at you when I asked for your help.” Steve is the first to enter, followed by Spike, a worried Twilight sees the two and quickly rushes up to Spike with a hug. “SPIKE! Where we you, do you have any idea how late it is!? When I came back, I didn’t find you or Steve inside?” “I can explain…” Steve explained how he asked Spike where he could find some metal to mine and showed him the place he and Rarity go to find gems. Spike helped him get some gems and other things, as the two quickly lost track of time, that it isn’t Spike’s fault and should had waited later to go mining rather than do it when it was getting dark, especially someone as young as Spike coming along with him. “While I’m glad nothing happened, please don’t do that again, at the very least you should had left a note,” said Twilight, calming down. Spike chuckled regretting not doing that earlier, after that, Twilight tells the two what she’s been doing and sent a scroll to Princesses Celestia and Luna. At that moment, Spike belches out a scroll which Twilight quickly catches and reads, the scroll says that both princesses will come visit tomorrow to speak in further detail about the incident that happened this afternoon. With all the things the trio did today, they all decided to head to bed, all of them saying a good night, with Spike and Twilight heading upstairs while Steve went downstairs. After making another chest to increase his chest’s storage capacity, he put away his new items, until he examined the gems he’s unfamiliar with – the rubies, amethysts, sapphires, and pearls. After some carefully thought, he puts those items away and began to make two additional furnaces alongside the one he built already. No rest for me I suppose, going spend my night smelting this gold for future use. Steve watched as the furnaces chugged away smelting the gold ore with the coal he mined, pulling out some apples he got from the kitchen, he bit into the sweet juicy apples. This is going to be a long night.