Silver Runner: A Crafters Tale

The summer air was crisp and clean as ever and made for the atmosphere to take a slow stroll around Ponyville which was exactly what Silver Runner was doing. Her mane gently swayed in the wind as Sugarcube Corner past her by and The Library became the next landmark in her vision. Silver was a purple earth pony, her mane was green and contained a streak of silver through it, her cutie mark was a blueprint which displayed her ability to make anything with the correct materials. As her name suggested she was exceedingly good at running, she was the fastest earth pony in Ponyville (a fact which she boasted on a regular occasion). She had on her possession a book and quill which were her most prized possessions which she took almost everywhere with her, the book contained notes from every place she had visited and often included a rough sketch of a blueprint to jog her memory should she forget how to create a certain item, and for that matter alone it was dubbed ‘The Crafting Encyclopaedia’ a name she had decided would be plastered on the front, back and side of the book making it nearly impossible to miss the fact that this was THE Crafting Encyclopaedia. She reached the library and continued on her walk but instead headed to her house to finish the experiments she was undergoing, she wanted to find a use for the seemingly useless material she had found buried under the ruins in the everfree forest, it was unlike anything else she had ever seen and had a gray colour but with small black indentations around it and the only way she seemed to retrieve this object was by getting some unicorns to help her excavate and move it using a form of magic that had been rarely taught in modern Equestria.

Silver’s house was an extremely messy place with axes, shovels, pickaxes an old swords scattered here and there which were usually accompanied by a frame with a nameplate which had a blueprint hanging by the smallest bit of tape you could possibly imagine. The walls were coated in papers and posters with bits of string and pins connecting them making her seem like a conspiracy nut, her desk was coated in a thick layer of chiselled stone beneath this layer was a 6x6 grid on a blue piece of paper where most of her experiments occurred, she pulled a hoof across the stone dust causing it to fall to the, already dust, wooden floor of her house as she grabbed a chunk of the strange stone she had found. It weighed more than usual stone and its odd appearance only piqued her interest, it was like nothing she or anypony in Ponyville had ever seen and she was still waiting on a reply from the Princess so she could confirm that this was a completely new rock and then perhaps she would find a use for it and become famous for her little discovery.

She placed the rock on the 6x6 grid and looked over it another time, it had an ominous beauty to it, she pulled a large, dusty book from the shelf and dropped it onto the table as she flicked through its torn and aged pages. She rolled her eyes

I would never let the Crafting Encyclopaedia get into this state... she thought as the yellow paper continually displayed no information about this mysterious rock she had excavated. The final page was in a decent condition in comparison to the rest of the book

“If there is a rock, mineral or substance of any kind not depicted in this book that is relevant then contact the publishers, if you are a pony of science then try to perform the relevant tests and practices surrounding the discovery of a new rock, mineral or substance.

Thank you”

Silver rolled her eyes, the books were always so imprecise with their identification scheme. There was always a form of contact or complex test to perform, she didn’t have the time for any of that nonsense and decided to perform her own tests based on the oldest practices of alchemy in Equestria.

What could go wrong?

She placed the rocks in many different formations before deciding that a doorway would be the most effective as it would catch each angle of the rock meaning that she could get her testing over with quickly and then attempt to make a form of axe or weapon out of it to prove that the rock was indeed useful in Equestrian living. The first test consisted of her attempting to use a form of fire on the rock, she lit the base of it with a pile of paper from an old book of hers and watched as the rock did absolutely nothing

“Well that was a waste of a perfectly good book” Pouted Silver as she thought of another, preferably sane, test.

She decided that using lava from Tartarus could provoke some sort of reaction with the rock, she placed a pair of flame retardant gloves over her front hooves and carried the small vial over to the doorway formation

“This had better do something... this cost too many bits to buy to just waste” Muttered Silver as she opened the top and poured the lava onto the doorway and watched as it did, once again, absolutely nothing.

She lost her temper at this point and began to kick dirt and leaves at the doorway which caused something to happen oddly enough, the leaves and dirt circulated around the doorway at an increasing speed and then it formed a filling for the doorway.

“What in Equestria...” She managed before something broke the sound barrier causing the glass in her house to shatter and her to temporarily lose the ability to hear and the sheer force for her to close her eyes.

She heard something, an ominous sound followed by the heavy breathing of an animal or another pony, followed by the sound of a rock and a piece of metal being rubbed together. There was a cough followed by the flicking of a few pages and then another attempt of rock and metal being rubbed against one another. An ominous tune began as the thing began to run causing the sound of hoofsteps to echo through her mind, the hoofsteps were now on dirt and the sound of a dog barking became audible and then there was static.

Her eyes opened, her hearing returned and she found herself in a completely unrecognisable landscape consisting of what appeared to be cubes. She was sat on some grass and around her were but a few trees, looking at her hoof she noticed that it was square

“What the...” She uttered in horror, fear overtook her and she began to run in a random direction weaving in and out of the trees as her breathing became heavier.

Those noises a second ago, the coughing and the static. What did it mean?

She stopped and looked around, she was now in a barren landscape.

What does a pony do in a situation like this?

They collect resources.

They make a pickaxe.

They survive.

*Silver Runner: A Crafters Tale*