Rain. Endless rain. How in the world does this world rain so much and not saturate the ground? I guess I can just chalk that one up to the world being weird.

It’s been three hours since it started raining, two hours since night came, and twenty minutes since I saw a guard so where in the world was Com?

As if on cue, I saw him pull a trademark move of looking at me from behind a building. I sat there and stared at him, but he just looked around trying to see if there were any guards around. I motioned for him to come over but he kept looking. I was really getting tired of this rain.

“Hey guards! Come quick, I’m about to make my grand escape!” I shouted loud enough for him to hear me. To my amusement he came over and hushed me.

“Stop that!” Com whispered, “You don’t know when they’re going to be back.”

“Com, it’ll be ok. I heard one of them say something about taking a break during the rain since no one would be able to prove they weren’t at their posts. We’ve got time for this.”

“I hope so,” he said. Com pulled a block out and started mumbling under his breath.

“Hey, what’re you doing and what is that block?” I asked, curious as to this new thing. It was red and there were a couple of letters on the side but I couldn’t tell what they were in the rain.

“Huh? Oh, this is your escape route Craft. It’s called TNT and I’m going to use it to open the door.”

I took a look around the cage, “Com there is no door.”

“...Yet.”

“Come again?”
He put the block down and made a trail with some red dust it looked like, “I said there is no door yet.”

I saw a hint of crazy on his face; this was starting to seem off. While he was setting everything up for whatever the plan was, I tried to think of what he said. He called that block TNT and for some reason that sounded familiar, almost like something from back in Equestria.

“Craft, you may want to hold onto something,” Com’s voice sounded a little crazy now. I looked up and saw him behind a building with a lever in front of him, “This escape is going to be a blast!” he almost yelled that last part.

I began to fear my trust of this Player, but he was my only way out so I just held onto the wood box that’s been my home the last two days. TNT, where have I heard of that? I knew I’d heard of it somewhere and it’s here. Why would something from Equestria seem so familiar here? I racked my brain over this for a few seconds while Com kept laughing to himself standing over the lever. The laughter was really creepy. Wait a second... creepy, laughter, blast, there isn’t a door yet? If the chitin on my face could go pale, this would be the moment it did. He was using trinitrotoluene, more commonly known as TNT, an explosive.

I looked at him and wished I had waited for my execution to escape, but it was too late for that. Com flipped the switch, the dust lit up, and the TNT...shrank? That was odd, but it also started blinking. I had to guess that was bad. My answer came a few seconds later when the TNT exploded and part of the ground, wall, and dust trail were either floating on the ground or just gone period.

There was a loud ringing sound in my ears and I could see Com trying to tell me something, probably to get the buck out of there, so I tried to move but that blast threw off my equilibrium and I almost fell backwards. He took all the dirt he could from the explosion and made a path to me. Nudging me along the path, we could see that some of the guards heard the explosion and were coming to check it out.

By the time we got out of the cage itself I had recovered well enough that I could walk on my own without tripping over my own hooves, running wasn’t quite up to speed yet. I chuckled at my own joke only to hear Com yelling something about us needing to get away quickly while he set up some more TNT and another dust trail.

He set it off and I could swear I heard the crazed laughter of a maniac coming from him. I knew what that stuff would do and as such my adrenaline kicked in and I suddenly remembered how to run at full speed again. Com wasn’t too far behind me but it seemed like he was trying to watch the explosion while running and that was hindering his speed. The guards in the village chose to stay back and hide during the explosion and by the time everything settled down the village was at a distance and I couldn’t see them chasing us.

We ran for a few more minutes before finally dropping to the ground in an area that had a lot of water and what appeared to be lily pads.

My chest was trying to fill itself with air and then depleting said air rather quickly, my chest rising and falling faster than my hopes that someling back at the hive would let me build something constructive and useful while still being discreet about where we were.

“What the hell was that?” I managed to say once my breathing stabilized.

“What was what?” Com asked back, a hint of apprehension in his voice.

“The whole explosion thing, and the way you were acting. It was kind of scary, but mostly creepy.”

He was quiet for a few moments before speaking up, “I really like explosions.”

“No kidding.”

“It’s weird; before I came here to this world I was afraid of even my own shadow, but now I love everything about the night, everything about the darkness and what it entails,” he told me, “It’s almost like I knew I would be safe if anything got to me, since we can respawn.”

“Well that still doesn’t explain your weird behavior back there. At first you seemed so calm and collected, like some kind of normal... being, but then you pulled out that block of TNT and suddenly you were like another person, almost like something flipped a switch on your personality.”

“I can’t help it,” he replied meekly, “When I deal with anything that explodes I get hyped up and crazy. It’s been like that since I got here.”

“When did you get here?” I was curious; the world was only about 1600 days old at this point.

“I’m not quite sure, but I’ve been here since the leader was here and he was here the longest. I know he’s been keeping track using blocks as a number system but I haven’t had the time to properly look at it.”

“If that’s the case then I have a good idea of how long you’ve been here but whatever.”

After a minute of silence he spoke up, “What about you?”

I thought about it and realized I hadn’t been keeping track of how many days actually passed so far, “I think about two months or so.”

“You sure haven’t been here too long.”

“Yep, after all this crap that’s been happening with you Players, no offence, I almost miss my old world. At least here though I don’t need to worry about starving.”

“Do you not have very much food where you come from?” Com asked, clearly confused.

“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know. You see, my kind doesn’t only need food and water. We need love,” I saw a look of confusion on his face, saw that one coming, “You see, my body is able to take emotions and eat them as though they had real form. I got a second stomach...thing for it too. Kinda cool now that I think of it.”

“You eat emotions?!” Com asked with what I could only think was fear. He even went as far as backing away from me. I didn’t try to deny it though since that was the gist of it.

“Yeah, but somehow it seems that I don’t need to here. Hell, I can’t do anything I should be able to do. Oh yeah, I can do more than eat emotions,” I added that last bit to try and get him to be more curious than scared. It worked.

“What else can you do?”

“Well, I can fly and use magic. Those are pretty standard where I’m from. What’s really cool is that I can also change what I look like, though that’s usually because I have to pretend to be someone else so I can gather love from them. I hated that part.”

“I know you said you eat it, but why do you need to gather love like that?”

“You saw how the Players in your village treated me back there; everyone thinks my kind are monsters or something. I mean, sure we eat emotions and have holes in our legs and wings that remind you of insects... wow, I am not helping my case.”

He just laughed, soon joined by me. After a minute of this we stopped and I looked around. It was night and there weren’t any lights but I couldn’t see any monsters close to us, in fact I couldn’t find anything near us at all. There weren’t any wolves, sheep, pigs, or cows.

“Com, this is weird, there’s literally nothing around us except trees and water.”

“That’s odd, we never razed this area. I can’t imagine why it’s so barren of life right now.”

“Can we get a move on, I don’t like this quiet, it’s just unnatural.”

“Agreed.”

We headed in the direction Com was sure I was brought from but found that the swamp, as Com referred to it as, was larger than we anticipated and the sun was starting to come up by the time we got to an area I recognized as the grasslands I lived in. I knew there were many areas that looked alike in this world though so for now I just hoped this was my grasslands.

“Hey Com, why haven’t the other Players come to stop us yet? I mean, we escaped the area and I’ve only got one place I would go so why haven’t we seen them yet? It just seems strange,” I wondered aloud to Com.

He was quiet for a few seconds but when he spoke he seemed alarmed, “If they know you’re coming back wouldn’t they want to beat you to your friends?”

I looked at him in horror and we both took off running, I spotted the village I knew I encountered early on in my time here which meant that the remains of my home, as well as my friends’ cave, were just a minute or so away from us.

When we reached the plot of land that I once called home I saw a sight that left me confused only for a few seconds before the recently constructed “it’s part of this world, just roll with it” part of my mind kicked in. My bed, chest, and furnace were just sitting there; the bed was floating though since it was on the second floor. I left Com behind for a second while I checked my boxes, and to my surprise they were still full of stuff. Why the Players didn’t take anything I don’t think I’ll ever know but that’s ok with me, I still had a ton of stuff here for making an armory and I intended to make it happen.

Com caught up to me and saw my stuff exposed to the world, “Was this your house Craft?”

“Yeah,” I sighed, “But it’s ok, I’ll just make another one. This time it’ll be out of something that won’t burn, probably cobblestone.”

“Not a bad choice, it’s definitely a resource you won’t run out of anytime soon,” Com said, trying to cheer me up.

“Yeah, that’s true,” I sat there in silence for a minute remembering the good time I had just building my house. Feeling those feelings again would be worth having to make another house.

I got back up and headed toward the cave where the trio holed up in, but I told Com to stay back in case they tried to attack him. I knew they wouldn’t be happy to see him but I owed him the chance to gain their trust.

When I got to the cave I heard plenty of moaning and bones clicking against one another, then I looked inside and saw a small army of monsters huddled in the small cave. I wasn’t really sure why they were clumped together like that but I had a good idea.

“Creeper! Skeleton! Zombie! I’m back and safe!” I shouted over the sounds of the monster army. Silence was swift and soon they moved out of the way to make a path for me. I moved toward the back and saw the trio just standing there.

Then Zombie ran at me and tackled me to the ground, “Safe... glad,” he said to me. The idea of a zombie being this close to me would’ve normally scared the hell out of me but he was just happy to see me so I didn’t complain.
“It’s good to see you Craft,” Creeper spoke up having found his voice after Zombie’s rather emotional reunion with me.

“Yes, we were getting worried something really bad had happened. We were even preparing to attack villages until we found yours and rescued you,” Skeleton said to me, surprising me that they would actually risk their own safety for my sake. That was more than could be said for almost anyling back at the hive where if you were caught you were a goner in their eyes.

“I appreciate the idea but it’s ok, I’m back and I’ve got something I need you to know,” I got their attention with that and told them of what happened at the village as well as what the Players were like. By the end of it night was starting to come.
There were a few minutes of silence when I finished until Creeper spoke up, “This is unprecedented, we were sure they all were hunters that would slay us at a moment’s notice. You say there were only a small number of Players there but most seemed harmless.”

“Yeah, I mean there were quite a few that looked like they could fight, less that looked like they had already seen real combat, but most of them were just farmers or miners trying to survive in a world that threatens their very lives should they leave the safety of their village. I even saw children; there were children in the village living what I can only call a normal life for them at this point.”

“What should we do Creeper?” Skeleton asked, sounding as though everything they knew was suddenly to be questioned.

“I’m not quite sure yet, we will need to learn more about this village and those who seek to live there in peace. Maybe in time we can hope for peace,” he spoke, still not sure exactly what should be done. Like Skeleton, his perception of the whole idea of Players was starting to feel skewed. It was clear the idea of Players being frightened for their own safety hadn’t been something they thought about.

The following silence was broken as outside there was a scream for help, one that I recognized as Com. I jumped from the ground and ran outside to the sight of several zombies chasing him down.

“Stop you guys!” I yelled as I ran toward the scene, “Don’t attack him!” The monsters didn’t seem to take heed of my words and kept chasing him down even though he didn’t try to fight back.

“Craft, help!” I could hear the fear in his voice as he tried to outrun the undead mob trailing behind him.

The trio caught up to me and Creeper spoke up, “Craft, what is this? Why does this Player know you and why aren’t you trying to slay him?”

“He saved my life and helped me escape the village so I could come back. Please call off the monsters!” I pleaded with Creeper, who contemplated my words before nodding toward Zombie.

“Stop... kindness... Craft,” Zombie spoke, louder than I had heard him before. Almost immediately the zombies stopped chasing Com and stood there as though waiting for the ok to attack again.

I ran to him and made sure he was ok before I brought him to the trio. It was plain as day that he was scared out of his mind, can’t blame him since he almost got swarmed by zombies, but seeing that they weren’t going to attack gave him a little peace of mind.

There was a bit of an awkward silence that followed. It lasted longer than I had hoped it would and it was borderline annoying after about a minute.

I coughed and spoke up, “Um, guys this is Com. He’s the one who got me back here in one piece and says there is a way to get me back to my world.”

This got their attention and I nudged him to speak, “Oh, um, yes... it’s like Craft said. There should be ways to make portals that will take any that travel through them to another world.”

Creeper spoke up, “Do you mean the portal made from the black rock, obsidian?”

“Yeah, but how did you know about that?” Com asked, confused.

“We have spent our entire lives here, but the idea of this portal never meant anything to us since we can’t travel through it ourselves.”

“Wait a second,” I interrupted, “You mean that you knew there was a portal thingy and it would take me out of this world and you didn’t tell me? Why the hell didn’t I know about this?” I really felt like I should’ve known about this earlier and it was frustrating that they kept it from me until now.

“Craft, you must understand that it wasn’t certain what would happen should you use it. Like I said, we will never be able to enter it if it were ever made.”

“What he means is that we’ve never even seen it let alone know how it’s made, we just know a portal exists that should be able to lead someone away from this world if they went in it,” Skeleton said seeing that I was upset.

“You still should’ve told me about this at least. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have still been willing to help us if you knew there was potentially a way for you to leave this world?” Creeper whispered, looking at me in the eyes.

I held his gaze for a few seconds and walked away toward the area that once held my home. The trio just stood there for a moment before talking with Com, but I didn’t catch any of it and instead started working on my home once more.

Like last time I made it fifteen by fifteen by ten, but this time I added in a basement by digging into the ground and I lit it up with a few torches I made from sticks and coal I had in the furnace. I figured if nothing else the basement would serve as a nice place to put my armor and weapons, though I still had to figure out how I’d make armor that would fit me since there was no way the normal Player armor would work. By the time I finished recreating my home it was daytime and all the monsters were in their caves or...gone.

“Craft,” I heard Com call for me while I was working on figuring out my armor issue. I came up to the door and saw him standing outside, “Can I come in?”

“Yeah, sure,” I let him in and he looked around, “So what did you and the trio talk about last night?” I asked, still miffed that they would withhold information that could get me back to my world from me. I might not like what I had to do there but it was my world.

“We were talking about how we might start on making the portal, none of us have actually seen the portal and only heard of it from...well, we weren’t really sure about where any of us had heard of it. It’s like we just knew for some reason. I can guess that they knew because they’re from this world, they mentioned being here before us but not being able to remember anything in particular.”

All I did with this was continue to work on the basement, setting chests and a furnace up near my crafting table.

“Craft, I haven’t been here long but it really seems like they care for you.”

“If they cared about me so much then they should’ve at least told me about the portal. I do want to get back to my world,” I said with a neutral voice.

“Craft, think of it from their viewpoint: an opportunity to potentially rid themselves of the thing that constantly has plagued them since they can remember shows up and wants to leave. Yes they have an idea of how to return a being back to where it belongs but they don’t even know how reliable this idea is. They have no clue what will happen, you might not even be able to use the portal if it doesn’t work for them.”

I sat down on the ground and sighed, “Com, I get that they need my help but they kept this from me. If I’m so important to them then shouldn’t they have at least considered my feelings about how much I just might want to go home? After all the time I’ve spent here I really am starting to feel homesick, even if home is just so painful when I’m there. I’m torn between staying here, alone, for the rest of my life trying to help them stay alive by fighting Players, that includes you, and finding a way back to my world so I can at least be with the ones I love.

“If I stay here I don’t have to pretend to be somepony else but if I go home I can get back to my family, my hive. Don’t you miss your world?” I asked him, needing to know how he felt about all this for some reason.

“Craft, I do miss my world but I don’t think you should hold it against the...trio for not telling you. They told me they were going to tell you but hoped that before they needed to that you would be able to help with their situation. I heard what you said to the leader back in New Hope, we are monsters. I came here with the leader and saw the world as it was. It was plain, simple, and peaceful, but you know what must be done. I know you’ve done it too, cut down trees and dug into the ground for resources so you could keep going. That’s what we had to do to survive. It’s because of our actions that your trio felt the need to eliminate us Players from this world. Maybe if we work together you won’t need this little lair you’re making, we might be able to come to a peaceful resolution.” He looked me in the eye, “If we can come to this conclusion then we won’t even need to keep you here. Then we can work together on making that portal to get you home.”

I was silent for a few moments taking in what he said, the chance for peace... something I’ve wanted back home for a long time. I could be instrumental in helping this world achieve peace, and if I could do that here then maybe I could do it back home, “I want to help them Com, I really do. If I had to choose between bloodshed and a simple talk to resolve our problems I would choose peace in an instant. But they didn’t trust me to choose to stay, that’s what I’m mad at them for right now. I was true to who I am and still I wasn’t trusted.

“Remember how I told you my kind changes our appearance back home? That was the only way we could gain trust with anyone not of our own kind. Then I came here and couldn’t change my form. No one has ever trusted a changeling before because of our deceptive capabilities, but here I can’t change and off the bat there are these three beings that see me and when I tell them what I had to do in my world they still trusted me. Now that I’ve finally gained some form of a chance to help their lives in a way they probably could’ve never imagined they’ve shown me that they never trusted me to begin with.” I strained to keep a straight face, and I was failing, “Com, I gave them my trust and thought I had theirs. They’ve betrayed my trust. I was nothing more than a tool, a means to an end.”

And then came the slap across the face I didn’t think I’d ever receive. Com slapped me across the face and spoke with a tone I couldn’t place but made me feel terrible, “Craft, you are the single most important thing they’ve come across since they can remember I bet. They clearly want peace and you’re the only one who can help them achieve it but instead you’re worrying about a trust NOT broken. Don’t interrupt Craft. I’ve only known them for hours but I can tell you that they want to help you. If you can help them with this problem now then they can devote their time with helping you. From what I saw they probably gathered as many of their companions as they could fit in that cave just to form a search party for you. If that isn’t friendship and caring then I don’t know what is. They were even prepared to wade through the water during the day just so they could come to the village once they found it, even if it meant that they’d have to leave the water to keep on your trail.

“I dare you to walk out there and tell them that risking their lives for yours isn’t trust in your capabilities to help resolve their problems. They trust you with their lives Craft, the least you could do is trust them enough to help you when this is all over.”

It never occurred to me that they would think of me this way. Yes I was a tool in their plan to make the land peaceful again but it wasn’t because I was a tool that they wanted me, it was because they felt I could make a real difference for them. They trusted me with the one thing they couldn’t do alone and now I might not have to do what we originally thought, there might actually be peace. I let my personal feelings from back in the swarm get in the way and almost ruined the trust that I had made with them because they didn’t tell me about a portal that I could’ve taken and left them to their own fates. If I had gone ahead and taken that portal then I would’ve been the one to have betrayed their trust.

Tears fell against the ground as I felt the gravity of everything hit me: it was I who was at fault; I went and almost ruined the one friendship that actually meant something here. I could mean the difference between them being able to live freely again or suffering under a fear that might not need to be but instead all I was doing was feeling sorry for myself because going home would be delayed.
“I’m sorry Com.”

“Don’t tell me that, let them know,” his tone softened up and I looked at him, “but first you may want to clean up because you look like a mess.”

With that I went outside and splashed myself with water and floated around in the water for a minute before getting out and heading to the cave where I found the trio standing around with their heads toward the ground. I know this is random but I wonder if they can sit.

They saw me and Skeleton began to speak, “Craft, I know it seemed like we were delaying you but I swear we didn’t want to hurt you.”

“It’s true Craft, we knew of the portal for a long time but we didn’t want to get your hopes up in case it did not work for you,” this time it was Creeper.

“Sorry...Craft,” even Zombie apologized. If only he could speak in more complete sentences I’m sure he’d have his own drawn out apology for me too, but I wouldn’t need it.

“No guys, it’s me who should be apologizing,” I said without facing them, “I was being unfair toward you. I know how much this means to you and I thought about it, if I had known about the portal beforehand I probably would’ve tried to make it and test it out. If it hadn’t worked I would’ve been mad at you for getting my hopes up and smashing them in an instant, and had it worked I would’ve been betraying your trust. I know I can help you guys with the Players and knowing about the portal would’ve only made me less likely to actually help,” I kept looking away from them, now looking out of the cave.

“It still was not right that we withheld what we knew about it, we were wrong. Can you forgive our mistake for not thinking you would help?” Creeper walked over to me and looked at me, then Skeleton put his limb on my shoulder soon followed by Zombie.

“Yeah, I can. I’m sorry for thinking that you didn’t care for me, I’ve been used as a means to an end my whole life and I guess I just slipped back into that thought process when I found out you knew about the portal. I shouldn’t have been so quick to think you wouldn’t help me down the line.”

With that I stepped forward and looked at them all, “Now enough about this, Com and I have come to the conclusion that between me, him, and the three of you we may be able to make peace with the Players. Would you be willing to consider it?”

“Peace with the Players?” Creeper said with a tone of curiosity, it was something that had obviously never been considered. Even our talk yesterday seemed more like a pipe dream until now.

“Craft, can such a thing be possible?” Skeleton spoke to me with a hint of disbelief in his voice.

“Why not? You’ve given Com a chance and he hasn’t tried to kill you yet, he didn’t even try to harm the zombies who chased him when we got here. If we can prove that you aren’t necessarily something they should fear then maybe there is a chance. Shouldn’t we at least try for it?” I threw the question out there hoping they would take to the idea. There were looks exchanged between the trio, at least I assumed it was something like that since they all only had a single look to their faces, and after several seconds they looked back at me.

“If the Players are willing to give us a chance then I can’t imagine why we would need to fight anymore. We are for this idea,” Creeper told me in a voice of approval.

I grinned at their decision and trotted back to my house happy that peace was starting to look more and more likely but the hardest part was still to come. We would have to go back to the village that caged me and we’d need to convince them to talk with the trio without trying to kill them. That was going to take some effort.

Author's Note

Phew, I don't know how some people write chapters this long and make it look easy. Anyway, I definitely have to say that this is my longest chapter so far and I hope it's also my best, or at least good enough for being this long. I almost wanted to split it up but ultimately decided against it. Feel free to let me know how I did and what you think of the story so far. Also, real quick, I just want to mention that the person responsible for my cover art doesn't know I used it so please don't kill me if you find out Alucard-lava of deviantart.com.