Dimensional Chronicles

Vamprah was in trouble, he had barely made it out the door when he heard a light cough from behind him. It wasn't the exasperated harrumph he had been expecting, but it was certainly meant to get his attention.
"Vamprah, may we speak to you, alone?" The voice belonged to Celestia, he was sure of that, he was also sure of the basic way she was holding herself, three inches, an almost painfully awkward way for a creature her size to hold itself. He heard Gavla turn her head to look at him, the mental link they shared conveying everything he needed to know.

He nodded, almost imperceptibly, and Gavla left the room, probably shooting a glare at Luna as she left.
"Yes, your highness?" Vamprah spoke carefully.
"Blueblood has been coming to me with some rather strange stories," ah, that was the issue, "but with him being Blueblood, and willing to say just about anything to get out of something he doesn't want to do, I didn't believe him. But certain... oversights, have forced me to re-evaluate his claims." Uh oh, turns out he wasn't the one in trouble.

"And you don't trust Gavla to come clean." Vamprah nearly cringed. He heard Celestia nod, vaguely. He hated using echolocation in places like this, he couldn't hear anything until almost a full second after it happened, big antechambers, a bat's worst nightmare.
"The green dye and the placing of her initial on him could be considered a uniform, her periodic artificial blinding and her near constant insults, she did say she was going to mess with him, and her outfitting of him for some of her more awkward inventions, the position of assistant often comes with the title of guinea pig. But, Blueblood has come to me with the following stories. Being used as a target for long range weapons, having molten metal flung at him to make him dance, having his face stuck in a furnace, and creating an elaborate illusion that involved being placed in a room made of sentient razor blades, all of which wanted him dead, and only being released from said illusion just before his head would be sliced to pieces. Are any of these stories true?"

He briefly considered lying to her, but he had always been terrible at hiding his tics, so he sighed and spoke honestly.
"All of them are true. Although, he wasn't being used as a target, she was aiming four feet to any side of him, if they came any closer to him than that she would throw out the design. All but one of her attempts exploded in her grasp, failing to so much as launch the projectile, the one that didn't explode was accurate enough and has been fitted onto the Earth Pony's armor. All in all Gavla sustained more injuries from that incident than he did altogether. And just for the record, I would like to say that I tried to talk her out of the razor blades." He heard Celestia tap the floor a few times.

"Tell Gavla that Blueblood has been removed from his position." She commanded calmly. "There is another matter that may need to be attended to. We have recently learned that the forces we will be obtaining may be much smaller than we originally planned, you remember when you told me about the rahkshi the other day." He nodded. "How many do you think you could make in two weeks notice?" Vamprah took a second to do a few calculations in his head. A kraata was simply concentrated antidermis. He thought about how much it took to make a single kraata, how long it took for him to regenerate his gaseous essence, and the speed at which they changed from kraata to the rahkshi armor.

"Do I need to move within the next four days?" He flexed a wing, anticipating not being able to do so anytime soon.
"No, the shield will hold." Celestia said apprehensively. "Although, I would prefer it if you didn't wear yourself out, making different kinds takes different amounts of strength correct?"
"Yes and no, it all depends on how often the makuta makes that particular kind of ktaata. I could make four-hundred Vorahk by tomorrow morning." He nodded, shifting on his wings. "But, I think I'll need a good flight beforehand, I won't be able to for a while." He took off, luckily the throne room had several large holes to allow Celestia and Luna to take off if they felt the need to.
_______________

There was a squirrel, and soon there wouldn't be. Gavla breathed softly from beneath the pile of leaves she had buried herself in, the nut she had positioned herself near was the perfect bait, at least in her eyes. It was so close, just barely out of her optimal range. It took one more step forward, she smiled, her fangs gleaming softly, and pounced, the rodent barely had a second to react, but managed with the expected speed, almost making it out of her range when she came down on its tail. She wrapped her claws around the bushy fur under her hoof and lifted it up.

"Thought you could evade me didn't you?" She taunted it, poking lightly at its exposed belly. "But guess what, no one escapes from me." She knew she was a sadist, and she was perfectly at peace with that, she knew how much she was going to enjoy peeling the flesh off this small morsel's bones. Unfortunately she was also aware of the horrified looks she was getting as she released and recaptured the little creature, opening shallow cuts on its body with each capture. She sighed, surrendering herself to the fact that her fun had to be cut short, and promptly bit its head off, ending the vermin's suffering once and for all.

Though she wasn't about to admit it, she loved the screams of disgusted terror that surrounded her as the blood's sweet tang filled her mouth, fear and pain, she loved causing them both; and while many would call her sick for this fact, she considered it more as self acceptance. She tried to keep her urge to hurt things under control, direct it at those that deserved it or those that were about to be dead anyway, and Blueblood, he reminded her far too much of herself. Self accepting doesn't mean not self-loathing. She took no enjoyment from death, it was boring, it was the extinguishing of those shadows that she held so dear.

That was another thing that most people found strange about her, most revere the light, they felt safe in the light. But her, she loved the dark, it didn't make sense to her that others would cling to light, light can hurt, light can burn away, light can hate, it can refuse to show itself, but shadows cannot, your shadow will always be there, shadows can't hurt you unless forced to, shadows can't hate, shadows can't hide themselves, shadows can embrace you, and death, the final mercy, was referred to as a shadow.

But she was letting her mind wander, she did that quite a lot when Vamprah wasn't there to keep her in track, she spit out the furry cranium of the ex-squirrel and set to work skinning it, fur would only complicate her digestion. She could still feel Vamprah in the back of her head, that was her favorite part about their link, that it was always there, it was something constant for her to hold onto, something, and someone, she could count on, even at this distance she could tell he was flying, and about to put himself out of commission for a few days, and that there was nothing she could say to stop him, she was also aware that she had to fire Blueblood, she had done that and gone straight to the gardens, where she had caught the squirrel that she was currently skinning.

She was in a bad mood, but she had something to look forward to, tomorrow she was going to have an army of Vorahk to terrorize her would be soldiers with. She was going to enjoy that, damn those guards were taking forever to get their claws installed. It was just pliantly hot metal, she had to deal with worse when she had been hired by a toa of lightning. Fun fact, toa of lightning actually have very little control, and pain is not something they deal well with.

"Miss Gavla?" A voice said behind her, forcing her to abandon her partially skinned treat.
"What?" She turned around, it was one of the earth pony guards, he was already in full gear, the black armor was built in columns, inspired by the towers one so often saw around Old Canterlot, the boxy design, while looking cumbersome, lent an air of authority to the wearer and was surprisingly comfortable and easy to move in, owing in part to the fact that the joints hid ball-joint-like fixtures, allowing for a maximum range of movement, her only working ranged weapon, she called it the Rampart Blaster, was attached to the back, when in use it would slide around the pony's neck into firing position, its shape suited the rest of the armor, and the recoil was so massive that she was sure only an earth pony could handle it.

"We're having a bit of trouble with a few of the stallions." He eyed the dripping carcass in her claws warily, more likely than not also noting the purple-stained fur around her mouth.
"And what do you want me to do about it?" Gavla sliced off a strip of meat from her catch's stomach, popping it into her mouth.
"Well, you said to come to you with any problems." He managed to wrench his face away from her maw, she almost chuckled at the shock still evident in his eyes.
"I did, didn't I?" She got up. "Alright, Who's giving you trouble?" She walked past him.
"It's a few of the unicorns, they've put up a force field and everything." A force field? That shouldn't be too much trouble.

"You can say it by the way." She spoke a few moments later to break the silence that had fallen between them.
"Say what?" He shifted nervously as he walked.
"What you've been dying to say since you found me... what's your name?"
"Copper Plate ma'am."
"Copper Plate, I won't be offended."
"What is wrong with you?" And there it was, her favorite question.
"You see these?" She bared her fangs, letting him take a good look before she spoke again. "These mean that I'm not an herbivore like you, I need meat as part of my diet, and the princess said she wouldn't get it for me. So I have to hunt."

"That I can understand but did you really have to play with the poor thing like that?" She hadn't expected him to see that.
"Well no... that was just for me." She pushed open the door to her forge. The four unicorns that had the shield up were cowering in a corner, as the rest of the guards just sort of looked on, there was nothing to suggest that the shield was anything more than a fixture. "You guy's need to lighten up a little, sheesh, a few whiners and your all up in a tizzy." She strolled over to the shield. "You have ten seconds to drop this shield before I break it down." She started to mentally count.

"So we can what? Have molten metal shoved up our legs, no thanks." He ate up all his time.

"Alright," she slipped the fingers out from below her claws, "have it your way." She slashed at the barrier, the fingers catching on the magic of the shield, causing them to spark wildly as a rend appeared in the ward, she pulled the fingers back out and the shield disintegrated. "You unicorns have such a trivial weakness, pure iron, give me a break." She waved over to where the sets of claws lay, the spires still sitting in the furnace to keep them hot. "You have," she checked with Vamprah, "ten minutes to get those claws on and get out of my forge, before I put them on you myself. You're new aren't you?" The shuddering nods were all the answer she needed, she loved causing fear. "Than you have five minutes."

"You're sure that there's nothing I can say to stop you?" Gavla paced behind Vamprah, he sighed.
"You already know the answer to that, and besides, we've already caused a rather big problem, I need to make up for it somehow." He shook for a couple seconds before gagging up a pair of dark grey slugs, kicking one of them into the charged vat Gavla had set up. Vamprah winced as the creature chattered in pain as it transformed, it was dead almost instantly.

What floated to the surface was the subject of many creature's, and basically everything on Odina's, nightmare. The dripping shell of a rahkshi. Vamprah placed the other kraata into the armor, waking the first vorahk, Vamprah nodded to it and it took its place near the wall. Gavla looked it over, appraising the grade of its armor. It was around twice her height, the tri-split reptilian face glaring back at her.
"So, I'm going to be in charge of these things while you're out, right?" Vamprah nodded. "Four hundred rahkshi, hmm, on second thought, go right ahead, this will be fun."

She crossed her forelimbs, hovering out of the room. "And just so you know, we both have to make it up to them, not just you." He smiled back at her as she closed the door.
Well, might as well get this over with. Vamprah started wretching directly into the vat, a noxious, acrid stench filling his nostrils. Ug, it stinks, this doesn't normally stink. He and the first rahkshi lifted the armored shells from the vat as they bubbled to the surface.

"Thanks." He grunted as it helped him lift the last shell from the energized metal. He knew it was just doing as its instincts commanded but thanking it made him feel better, he could already feel his strength flagging, he would have to finish making the kraata quickly. Wretching onto the floor, he telepathically instructed the vorahk to place the other kraata into their bodies. He could feel his consciousness fading. A little more, just a little more. he strained, forcing one last kraata to fall from his mouth, before he fell into dreams.

The next morning.

Vinyl Scratch hadn't wanted to get up yet, she was on the night guard, she had only just gotten to bed when they had called her out for special training. The Canterlot gardens, not someplace she went regularly, Octavia talked about them all the time, said they were peaceful. Yeah right, she snorted, try getting dragged out to them at the crack of dawn when you just pulled an all-nighter.
"Alright, you maggots!" The smith barked at the gathered crowd. "I am Gavla, and welcome to Warzone Combat Training! If you thought boot camp was bad, I suggest you find your drill instructor and apologize when we're done!" Gavla was wearing a pair of small saddlebags and had a squad of four massive reptilian hominids on either side of her, along with one of the unicorn nurses from the castle.

Wait a second, boot camp? Vinyl had never been to boot camp, she was working off a community service ticket. "The creatures on either side of me are known as Vorahk Rahkshi, they will be your obstacle course. One you can all make it through them without failing, you will be able to deal with anything the enemy will be able to throw your way." Gavla looked around, as if trying to figure out the most efficient way to kill them all. "Before we start though, I need you to form three member groups, each with one unicorn, one pegasus, and one earth pony." They quickly found their groups, old clicks asserting themselves.

Vinyl tugged at the collar of her purple-red armor, she had honestly been terrified when she had first seen it, there were pointed spires on the shoulders and all down the back, the knee joints on the front and back were also pointed, and anywhere that wasn't looked like it could slice a pony in half, she was the most surprised by how comfortable it was, she had asked what the practical reason for all the spikes was, and gotten a shrug from the green mare that had outfitted her. She'd told her to ask the smith, but as of yet she'd only seen her during the "claw incident". The "claw incident" was when they had told her to hold still and pulled a set of red hot claws out, that had not been fun, and the smith now scared her shitless. She had never seen anything just tear through a shield being cast by one pony, much less four, like that, and that smile, like they were already begging for mercy. She shuddered slightly as she thought about it.

Vinyl found herself floundering as she searched for a group to join. "Recruit!" She froze as Gavla yelled at her. "Look at me!" Vinyl whirled around, nearly tripping over herself. "There's a group over there that needs a unicorn." Gavla was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "And by the way, I shouldn't be the one you're scared of today," she smiled that same smile, pointing at the vorahk behind her, "they are." She chuckled.

Bowl control? Are you still there? Good. Vinyl walked over to the group Gavla had motioned to.
"Hey, how's it going?" She asked the stallions.
"Fine." The pegasus said. The pegasus' silver armor was much less flashy than hers and much more sleek than the earth pony's, there wasn't a hard line on the thing, no projections, nothing, but the entire thing looked like a continuous blade, even the wings looked like they could slice through whatever they wanted, "The smith's such a blowhard, I know for a fact that my Drill Sargent was the worst of the worst. If she thinks she can top that, I dare her to try."
"Have you seen her smile?" Vinyl asked, looking over her shoulder to make sure Gavla wasn't watching. "It's like she wants to floss with your guts, I would not dare a pony that crazy to do anything."

"She's all show, trust me." He waved her off. "Name's Sandcroft, my silent friend here is Copper Plate."
"Listen up!" Gavla barked. "Before we start I want to make two things perfectly clear! One, these vorahk will not show mercy, they've been instructed to leave you alive, nothing more!" There was that smile again. "And two, You are expendable, the other ponies in your group are not! Anyone caught violating this command will be... reprimanded. I'll see what I can get away with!" Bowl control? Don't die on me now! We haven't even started yet! That smile, why in the hell couldn't she get over the look on Gavla's face? She could practically feel herself running away every time she saw it.

She saw the vorahk tighten their grips. "You have ten seconds." Everyone just sat there for a moment, unsure what to make of this command. "Ten!" Vinyl got it right away.
"Guys, come on!" Vinyl took off, running into the dense trees off the edge of the path, Sandcroft and Copper Plate looked at each other for a moment before following, quickly catching up to her.
"Why are we running?" Sandcroft yelled.
"Alive, nothing more." Copper Plate murmured.

"One!" Gavla shrieked, and all hell broke loose. A rahkshi burst from the canopy, screams and bolts of energy flew through the air.
"What in the hell is wrong with this mare?" Vinyl yelled as she ducked the rahkshi's staff, a massive crack pealed through the air, the vorahk was blasted through the brush, Copper Plate whinnied in surprise as he was nearly lifted off his hooves, the barrel of his Rampart Blaster smoking.
"That has a lot more kick than you'd expect." He pawed at the ground. "We need to find a defensible position, somewhere up high probably. Sandcroft."
"Already on it." Sandcroft flew up above the trees.

"New girl," he looked over at Vinyl, "what's your name?"
"Vinyl, Vinyl Scratch." She looked nervously at the underbrush around them.
"Alright, Scratch, you any good with resonance fields?"
"Yeah." She put a little energy into the field. A resonance field was an alarm system, designed to create a large sound when something touched it, what good would that do them here, these creatures weren't exactly stealthy. "Why a resonance field?"
"I get the feeling they're called Vorahk for a reason."
"And you'd be right." Sandcroft flew back down. "Bad news, they can fly."
"What?" Vinyl started eying the canopy, she had figured that one had just climbed a tree or something.
"It gets worse, their attacks can be ranged, they're picking off pegusi like flies, so getting up high doesn't seem like a good idea. Their attacks seem to drain energy from the target. The name makes sense now."

"Crick." Vinyl whirled around, eying the brush behind her, she knew she heard something.
"Scratch, what's up?" Plate walked up next to her.
"Thought I heard something." She shook her head. "So where should we go then?" A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over her and she stumbled forward.
"Scratch, what's wrong?" Plate took a step forward to support her.
"Nothing, just got up too early." She shook herself.

Something hissed, a lot of somethings. They snapped around, standing back to back, ready to defend themselves, no one breathed. Suddenly, snakes and other animals came pouring out of the brush, all fleeing in the same direction. "Think we should follow them?"
"Better question, why didn't they set off the resonance field?" The Rampart Blaster whirred to life, glowing lightly with restrained energy. Something big moved, causing a large bush to shake. "Run!" Plate shot off the blaster, vaporizing the bush. They charged through the brush, ducking branches, jumping bushes; after a second they could see their pursuer, the silver and black armor glinting ominously. Vinyl hazarded a glance as it screamed at them, its open jaw revealing the slug-like kraata.

Another wave of fatigue washed over her and she tripped, turning her ankle rather painfully. Falling onto her face she looked up at Sandcroft and Copper Plate, who had stopped, a few feet ahead of her, then back to the rahkshi, which was trying to pry its staff out of a stubborn bush, which was withering as it pried at it. Gavla's command shot through her mind.
"You are expendable, the other ponies in your group are not." She forced herself to her hooves.
"Plate, Sandcroft, run, I'll hold it here!" The two guards nodded and ran. The vorahk managed to tear its weapon from the plant, the promise of death in its glowing eyes. Vinyl tried to remember a battle spell, Energy Bolt, Fire Wave, anything. The rahkshi screamed at her and charged, Vinyl cast up a shield, the creature slammed headfirst into it, shaking itself off and jamming its staff into the shield, Vinyl felt that same wave of fatigue, she cast out the shield pushing away the vorahk, before banishing the wall of energy altogether.

Another wave of tiredness and it felt like a pit had opened in her stomach, a second and third Rahkshi jumped out at her, she forced magic to flow through her, the armor lit up, lances of energy flew from the spires, seeking out and blasting the three rahkshi, forcing them back. So that's what these are for. The three monstrous hominids wailed in frustration, before charging her, staffs set to spear her.

"Enough!" Plate's voice sounded somewhere above her, one of the Rahkshi was blasted through the underbrush, followed by another, the crack of his cannon was nearly deafening, a silver blur collided with the third Rahkshi's face, knocking it away.
"You didn't think we'd really just leave ya' did you?" Sandcroft grinned at her.
"Sandcroft, Scratch'll be fine, get me down from here!" Vinyl looked up, Copper Plate was hanging by the claws on his back legs, from a branch that looked dangerously close to snapping. "The kick on this thing is too much for this branch, it's going to snap." Sandcroft flew up, hooking his forelegs under Copper Plate's torso, Vinyl fought the urge to chuckle. "Not a word!" Copper barked at her as Sandcroft awkwardly flew him down.

"Thanks guys." She limped towards them.
"What happened?" Copper, lifted her onto his back.
"Hey!"
"Oh shush, you'll be a liability if your limping along, and this way you can focus on watching our backs." Sandcroft hovered next to her, looking dangerously close to laughing at her. "So, what happened to the leg?"
"I twisted the ankle when I fell." Suddenly Gavla's amplified voice sounded from somewhere above them.

"It's a beautiful day in the Canterlot Gardens and we've got quite a matchup today, twenty three squads of guards verses seventy rahkshi vorahk. there are currently seven guard squads left not drooling into the forest floor, could the vorahk that took them down please get them cleaned up and brought back to base. And just so you guys know, any one who can find and defeat me will get the rahkshi off their butts. Good luck."

"Well, I think we just found our goal." Copper nodded. "Vinyl, you any good with tracking spells?"
"No. My specialty is sound, I can make and control sounds but when it comes to tracking anything I'm useless."
"Well, so much for that, Sandcroft, she was above the canopy, think you could track her down from up there?" Sandcroft shrugged.

"If those things are still patrolling up there, I'd say that'll be difficult at best." He took off, shouting over his shoulder. "But I'm still gonna try, if I don't get zapped, follow the whistles."

The Doctor woke up slowly, he didn't want to. The world of dreams was so much more manageable, for example, Ditsy was still there in his dreams, the girls had never found him out. In his dreams he had never left, in his dreams he could grow old and die.

But someone was pounding on the door to the Tardis... again.
"Alright, alright, who wants to slap me now?" He forced himself over to the door, throwing it open. It was Cheerilee, oh great, it wasn't enough that every mother in stinking Canterlot wanted to kill him for refusing Kal, stupid amplification... however the hell he had done that. Now the teachers were in on it too. "Before you cuff me around the ears, let me ask; which would you rather have, slavery with the constant threat of death, or just death?"
"Death, I should think." Cheerilee pushed past him. "It really is bigger on the inside." She spoke curtly and with the detachment that came with scientific curiosity.

"Yes..." The Doctor eyed her warily. "I've never had someone react quite that way to it before. If you're not here to attack me, then what do you want?"
"Dinky came to me earlier," uh oh, "she told me the most interesting thing. She said that Ditsy couldn't board the big-inside ship."
"I never got the chance to spend much time with her, so you'll forgive me if I'm not quite sure how this is relevant." Why won't you leave? Is what he really wanted to say, he just needed some time to himself, without angry ponies trying to slit his throat.

Cheerilee whipped around, and there was the slap, this was a bit harder than the other ones, it sent him sprawling. He panted into the floor a couple times, "I get the feeling I should remember you." He forced himself back up. "Sorry, for whatever I did this time."
"I told her not to get mixed up with you." Cheerilee growled at him. The Doctor snapped to attention, that look, yes, he remembered her. Oh buck. "I knew there was something about you, you ooze trouble." He backed away from Cheerilee's enraged form. "And now where is she? Huh!" She pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. "Where's Ditsy you, sorry!" She drove her hoof into his face, his vision burst with white. "Excuse!" Again. "For a stallion!" Again.

He braced himself, eyes squeezed shut, expecting another blow to his jaw, but instead there was simply a soft patter of something wet landing on his neck. He opened his eyes, Cheerilee was just sitting on his chest, foreleg back and at the ready, tears had welled up in her eyes, she let her leg sag down to her side. Why had she stopped? It was no more than he deserved, coward that he was. "She thought the world of you." Cheerilee choked out. "Even after you left, she wouldn't let me say anything bad about you. No matter how long you took, no matter how many times she had to lie. She wouldn't tell you of course, she would never let her precious Doctor know she still cared." The Doctor caught a whiff of her breath, yep, she'd been drinking.

She brought her hoof back up again, tears streaming down her face. "And even that was for you!" She tried to clock him again but instead her hoof simply stopped a few inches from his face, they sat there for a second, staring at the hoof that was just barely not poking him in the eye. The Doctor with a sort of terrified astonishment, and Cheerilee like she was wondering what dark powers had stopped her from taking his eye out. After the silence had dragged far beyond the realms of awkward, Cheerilee lifted herself off of the Doctor and started heading for the door.

"Wait!" The Doctor almost looked around to confirm he was the one who actually said that. Cheerilee froze. "You're not the only one who lost something." He spoke just barely louder than a mutter.
"Oh and what would you care, you abandoned her, you-"
"You don't get it!" He nearly screamed. "What do you know me as?" It took a second for Cheerilee to realize that he actually wanted an answer.
"Tick Tock, why?"
"Because that's not my name, neither is Doctor."
"I don't-"
"No, you don't understand. I told her my name! I can only tell someone I truly love my name!" He stared her down through his swelling eyes. "It nearly killed me that I had to leave! You have no idea what I would have given up just to talk to Sparkler again! Or Dinky just once before the Makuta showed up!"

He took a step forward, forcing Cheerilee to the door. "Now leave my Tardis, leave me be!" He reared up and shoved her out, slamming the door behind her. He sat down, and finally, let himself cry.

He had fallen asleep again by the time someone knocked again. He blinked a few times, the soreness in his face making him draw in a quick breath. "Okay, this is ridiculous," he opened the door, "I'm trying to sleep off a rather rigorous beating here." He cocked an eyebrow when he realized that his visitor's face was actually a good four feet above him. The reptilian monstrosity hissed at him, motioning for him to follow it.

"I take it there's no chance you can talk is there?" It stared at him for a moment before motioning again. "I'll take that as a no."