Chapters Today was not a good day for Max, although for him that really wasn’t saying much. Being the runt of the litter Max was often ridiculed by his peers, not that he knew what these words meant of course. Being the runt meant that Max received an even poorer education than most diamond dogs. He was given the worst jobs that the boss, his older brother, could come up with. This mainly came down to cleaning, latrine duty being the worst out of all of it. Today however, was different, there had been less and less gems coming up from the mines, too little to pay their annual tribute, so Max had been assigned to mining just like everyone else. It was grueling, dirt work, but in this case for once, he was no different from those around him.
Finally, for the first time that day, Max saw a gem, a simple sapphire, though it would play a much larger role. The dog pulled the gem from the ground and was about to return to mining when a crack appeared in the floor. The dog tried to run but the floor came out from under him before he had a chance. Though the dog would never know it, he had landed in a chamber made of solid granite. The room was a large rectangle, with torch-lit buttresses supporting the high walls. The object of interest though, was in the middle of the room. A raised square platform, an altar of sorts, torches of blue light lighting it. Resting in the middle, surrounded by runes of incredible detail, was a large precious stone, another sapphire, though this one was far from mundane. Inside were bolts of gold and green lightning, crackling around from side to side, surrounding two ice blue eyes.
Sadly, for the dog at least, when he landed he hit his head, rendering him brain dead. This was perfectly fine with me as besides his brain, the rest of him was in pretty good shape. I did him a mercy and removed his soul from the body, sending him off to parts unknown. You see, through a magical attack committed upon me some time ago I was rendered incorporeal, my soul bound to the mortal plane without a body. Like others that had lost their bodies before, I tried creating a new one, running into the same problem they did, the body wouldn’t accept the soul. Whenever a child is born a sort of binding agent is created that attaches the soul to the body, something no individual has been able to replicate before. Now I didn’t have to, even though the soul had left, the binding agent was still there, I got to work. I repaired the neural damage, something, though simple with magic, was a long procedure. With that complete, I, for lack of a better word, stuffed my soul into his body, the light within the altar fading instantly. I had no time for preparations as the body would soon detect that the soul was gone. I wasted no time, struggling to convince the new form that I was the original owner of the body. With that done, I took the organic material, bones, muscles, skin and such, and molded it to a vastly different form, instantly I began to scream.
“Oh right pain, kind of forgot about that. ” Had to admit, having physical sensations again was nice, not that I was a masochist, but after a few years of not feeling anything, even pain was pretty nice. Nice was a pretty relative term under these circumstances, even though it was refreshing it still bloody hurt. Still I managed to keep my concentration as I finished the process. Looking down I saw something absolutely wonderful, my old body. Hands, feet, legs, arms, everything, it was back. Turning around to the wall behind me, I saw my reflection on the polished granite, my face, with its ice blue eyes and blonde hair, staring back at me. I felt it and it was indeed real.
“I’m back, I’m real, I’m here. ” I had a body once more, and better yet, looking at the crackling of green and gold lightning in my fingers, I had my magic with me too. Done admiring my visage, I turned around and walked to the altar that had held me for so many years. Pressing on the bottom, a drawer revealed itself. Contained within were a set of clothes that had not been worn within some time. Simple black pants, shoes and shirt, undergarments of course, with a blue and gold long coat, intricate symbols sewn into it. The prize contained within though was a large golden staff topped with an emerald and a curved blade. Carved along the length of it were countless runes. I picked up the staff and felt a surge of power run through me as the runes lit up and my eyes began to glow, power flowed into me. The flow stopped suddenly as the mana battery ran out. Still, it was enough, I had absorbed enough magic that I could finish what I had started, a slow fire crept up my back and soon faded, leaving a set of feathered wings behind. All set, I flew up to the hole in the roof and left.
-X-----[ROTP]-----X-
I made my way down the passage that the dog had left behind and soon found myself in a nexus of tunnels. I sighed and was about to make my way down a random passage when a silver dog walked out of one of the tunnels. He quickly made to run away but was a bit too slow, before he could escape I pointed my staff and wrapped him in my telekinesis. Though my magic was severely impaired, levitating a diamond dog was still a simple task. I carried him over to me and smiled my most menacing smile.
I growled in his face, “Which way to your den?” I made sure to cast a truth detection spell to make sure he wasn’t deceiving me as he pointed down the hallway fearfully. “Well let’s go meet your alpha shall we?” With that I made my way towards into the hall and towards their den.
Chapter 1: The Darkness (Archived)
Rex had held onto only two fears his entire life. One of which, the fear of death, never really bothered him that much. The other, the fear of the dark, was a constant companion. This was one of the fears that was rather uncommon for a diamond dog, the other being claustrophobia. This was because in deep dark caves you tended to be facing your fear quite often. Rex was an exception to the rule. Over the years he had been subjected to the dark more times than he cared to count (he couldn't count that high if he wanted to anyway) and still the fear persisted. Eventually he got lucky and found a interesting little glow in the dark crystal. The glow wasn't permanent and required Rex to bring it to a light to recharge everyday.
Sadly for Rex his light had run out while he was still in the caves and he had been enveloped in the darkness. While for most diamond dogs, even for those afraid of such things, this wouldn't be too bad, Rex's solution to his fear had caused his eyes to be permanently adjusted to the light meaning that when the light went out he couldn't see.
Luckily for him, diamond dogs have an amazing sense of smell and he was able to find the tunnels heading back. Unluckily for Rex, his lack of vision caused him to miss the hole that was in the middle of the path. He sensed that he was stepping on air a moment too late and his body began to tumble down the steep cliff into the abyss below.
After nearly half a minute of tumbling and quite a few yelps he found himself stopping at the bottom of the pit. The long tumble had made it so that he would definitely bleed out long before he made it back to his pack's camp. So now here he was, facing two of his fears at the same time in what would be the last moments of his life. These were the diamond dog's thoughts (though in much simpler terms and with terrible grammar). But as fate would have it, he would not be leaving the world of the living that day for he was not alone.
"You don't have to die you know.
The voice whispered from inside the depths of his very mind, startling the diamond dog back to alertness as he was falling asleep.
"What, who there?" Rex asked, speaking in the trademark tone of voice adopted by diamond dogs everywhere, illiterate idiot. When no response was received the canine asked another question, "what do you want?"
"Ah, he asks the right question, surprisingly enough, I though it would take you a while to get there. What I want is to make you an offer.
"What you offer?"
"I will give you a way out of this pit and heal your wounds, in exchange you will work for me.
A look of hope and comprehension reached Rex's face as he realized that the voice was offering to save his life. "That it?"
"That's it, you work for me and I save your life.
The diamond dog responded less than a second after the voice had finished, realizing that he had no choice. "Okay, go ahead."
"Wonderful, let us begin, oh an by the way, this is going to feel rather odd.
Rex saw nothing at all for what felt like days before the world exploded in a swirl of colors and he saw everything. The stone around him, the metals and gems within the walls, and the magic of the earth itself. Everything was visible to him in a display that should have killed him or at the very least blinded him, yet he felt no pain at all.
Soon the awe that had been inspired in him died down as he became accustomed to the world around him.
"What did you do?" Rex asked, no accusation or malice within his tone merely curiosity.
The voice answered him with a tone of satisfaction and surprise, "I improved you, made you whole again, although I am surprised that it worked.
"What do you mean by you improved me?"
The voice responded with a chuckled, "Oh didn't you notice, no, I let you see the world for what it is, I opened your mind, and, thank god, I fixed your terrible vocabulary. Your bones are harder, your muscles stronger and faster, your reflexes faster, and most importantly you are smarter.
Rex realized he was right, it was as though a veil had been lifted from his mind and he had been set free. For the first time in his life though, he really didn't know what to do. It wasn't as though he had thought about what to do previously, quite the opposite, mainly he let his instincts take over for him but now, now had control over them.
"Now I'm sure your realizing that your don't really know what to do, am I right? Well it's a good thing that I'm here to guide you. Do you understand that now I am your master?
Rex once again nodded, a grin on his face, "Yes master, what do you want me to do?"
Chapter 2: The New Boss (Archived)
Rex was quickly becoming accommodated to having my voice in his mind, although I may have cheated
by taking a few liberties when establishing myself within his mind. Soon after his improvements stabilized, I had Rex leave the pit and began to make his way towards his camp. I had also reminded him repeatedly that he shouldn't speak out loud when conversing with me as insanity is not a trait that you can get away with in the current diamond dog society. Upon the way back Rex provided me with information as to the current state of diamond dog society, apparently it had gone downhill in the last millennium or two, degenerating into tribalism and losing much of their technology.
Thousands of years ago the diamond dogs were masters of gems, diamonds being their specialty of course. Once they had known how to form the hardest of gems into tools, weapons, and armour. Nowadays they had been forced into using stone tools, their hands, or the "advanced" ones that they pillaged off of the ponies when they took them as slaves. The knowledge that they were able to subdue ponies gave me a bit of amusement. Normally I'd be the first to attempt to free slaves but ponies, let them rot.
Soon we reached the camp that the dogs had set up, and I realized that calling it a camp is a little bit of an understatement. It was more of a small settlement with homes on the outside and a small market at the centre. At the very middle of the market was a large rock throne that appeared to have been hewn out of the rock of the cavern. Sitting upon the throne was a larger than usual dog. His coat was a dark brown with portions of it having been ripped off in what appeared to have been a fight or three. The scars were hard to see underneath the portions that had regrown but where he was still bald, well it wasn't the prettiest sight.
I directed my new employee to take a position where he could watch as I saw a dog watch up to the one upon the throne. The dog, who was now issuing a fight with the leader, was not much smaller than the average dog and had most definitely trained for the fight. His well-toned muscles were visible even through his thick coat and his teeth had been visibly sharpened. A crowd gathered around the fight as it begun and I directed Rex to join the circle of canines. I was now able to see, through Rex's eyes, into the eyes of the two fighters. The leader appeared to be bored, likely due to the large number of fights he had been through, while the runt had a predatory glean in his eyes accompanied by a spark of intelligence.
The smaller dog, Rex said he was named Sparky, attacked first, running at the dog whose name was apparently Fido, wonderful. Fido lazily sideswiped Sparky, missing as Sparky jumped an impressive distance in the air onto Fido. The alpha appeared to waken up as he noticed this and then adopted a look of pain and surprise as Sparky sunk his teeth into the dog's shoulder. Fido assumed an enraged expression on his face as he violently ripped Sparky away from his shoulder, a large chunk of skin following him. The alpha fell down to the ground in pain but had obviously won the fight as Sparky was not getting up after he hit his head upon the stove floor. Fido began to walk over to his downed opponent with a look of malice in his eyes.
'What is he doing?
'Finishing the fight, ' replied Rex, speaking with no hint of emotion in his voice, he merely listed it off as though he had repeated this dozens of times, 'it goes fight is to the death. '
'Stop him now, challenge him.
'But master, ' Rex protested, a hint of fear in your voice.
'DO AS YOU ARE TOLD BOY!
"Stop!" my servant yelled halting Fido as he was bringing down his blade upon Sparky. "I challenge you!"
"The mutt think he can fight me," the alpha spoke with a laugh, "go now and you live, stay and die."
After the alpha called my current host a "mutt" I could feel the anger building within Rex. It would appear that the only portion of high society that the dogs had retained over the years was tribalism, I was starting to really hate this place. Using the anger as a doorway I was able to merge my mind with Rex's and therefore give him a better chance of succeeding in the upcoming fight.
Rex decided to attack first, much to the surprise of Fido, rolling under the Fido's rather predictable swing. Rex stood up with one leg on the ground and the other one rising to kick him in the groin. Fido curled over in a ball as Rex brought his fist to the alpha's face, a crunching noise accompanying the spray of blood from the larger dog's nose as it shattered under the force of the punch.
The rest of the fight went in practically the same way as Rex completely destroyed Fido leaving him a crying mess upon the stone floor. Rex finally stepped away from the alpha when he heard a crack from Fido's midsection.
"Never call me a mutt," Rex seethed between his teeth, his anger finally expended. I'd wager a bet to say mutt was a fairly large insult nowadays. For a moment after Rex had stopped beating the canine upon the floor, then, without warning, the market erupted in cheers.
"Hail Rex, boss under the mountain." The market turned into a giant festival, celebrating Rex's victory over Fido.
"Hey kid, you did great
