Dimensional Chronicles

Dimensional Chronicles chapter 5: Shadow of the Swamp
Three days ago.
Makuta Krika woke up in a swamp and groaned. Had it all been a dream? Had Gorast really not killed him? No Krika thought, it had happened. He had just survived somehow, maybe Teridax just liked him. His stomach growled and he jumped. He hadn’t heard that noise in over five thousand years. He decided to go hunting, which he did by sinking into the murk and waiting. He waited for hour after hour; the sun was at its apex before something of value came along. It was a small, horned equine, probably a distant relative of the mawi ponies of Metru nui. He gathered himself and pounced, the equine screamed. He almost had the small thing in his fore claws when something hard hit him in the side of the mask, knocking him off course and into the muck.

Rarity smirked at the direct hit on the thing that had sprung out at Sweetie Belle, who was now running back towards her sister. The thing had landed on its back, dazed. It was not much taller than an average pony, but it was a good deal longer.
“Take that you ruffian!”
“Yeah.” Sweetie Belle yelled, breaking the things trance. It turned its head over, looking Rarity strait in the eye with a sickening sound like cracking bones.
“You can speak?” It said, with a voice that sounded like his throat was made of sandpaper. It turned its upper body right-side up with the same sickening sound, followed by its lower body. “I apologize.” It said sincerely. “I was not aware you were intelligent.” It bowed courteously, then cocked its head curiously. “My name is Makuta Krika, may I know yours?” Rarity’s eyes narrowed. Its stomach growled and she decided to take a page from Fluttershy’s book.

“I am miss Rarity and this is Sweetie Belle, come on out and say hello to Krika. He didn‘t mean to attack, he was just hungry.” Krika nodded, Sweetie Belle shook her head and hugged Rarity’s back leg. “How about we get you cleaned up and see your face.” Rarity said, more as a command than as a question.
“Alright.” The mud and gunk of the swamp fell from his body, as if it had never been stuck to him.

Underneath, was something from a nightmare. He looked horribly malnourished, his ribs, pelvis and vertebrae clearly visible against his sagging flesh. His coat was bone white, black and red, he was wearing a mask that appeared to be a giant shrimp head with more vertebrae sticking out the back ending in a blade. The muscles and bones of his spindly limbs were also visible, he was standing using massive blades that appeared to be the spinal columns from other creatures. His eyes were massive, requiring bulges in the mask and were red with no whites to them.

Sweetie Belle screamed, burying her face in Rarity’s flank. Rarity just stood there, horrified. Krika, upon seeing this, hid his face behind the blades. “I’m sorry, you can run now if you want to.” Bitterness making his voice crack. Rarity forced her emotions back into her control.
“W-well, you’re just a little-” She took a step forward only to be blasted back, along with a good portion of the ground. A perfect sphere of space was pushed away with Krika floating in the middle, curled up into a ball. Rarity got up and walked up to the edge. “Now see here, you’re acting like a baby.” Krika stirred. “You’re just a little malnourished, I bet you’ll look better the second we get some food and clean water in you.” He looked up.
“You’re not scared?” He asked, looking up at her with his massive eyes.
“I believe terrified would be a better word," Rarity admitted sheepishly, "but I simply cannot stand the sight of a full grown anything acting so juvenile.” He uncurled and dropped to the ground.

“Sorry.” He said, holding himself close to the ground. “No one has seen me and stuck around me longer than a minute, without trying to kill me, for almost a thousand years.” Rarity could see why but now was no time to be judging on appearances.
“Come with us; we’ll find you something more appetizing to eat.” She waved him over.
“O-okay.” He crawled out from the hole he had made, head held low, and bowed again to Sweetie Belle. “I’m really sorry about scaring you.”
“It’s alright, I guess.” She hugged closer to Rarity, obviously and understandably confused. Krika followed them, trailing slightly behind.

“If you don’t mind me asking.” Krika said timidly. “May I have a hair or something along those lines?”
“Why?” Rarity stopped, eyeing Krika incredulously.
“It’ll be quicker than just asking you about where I am.” He assured.
“Alright.” She plucked a hair out and lifted it to Krika’s face. He lifted a fore claw and grabbed it out of the air with a pincer. Rotating it, he seemed to scan every detail into his brain until he dropped it.
“Well, this world is interesting; am I truly supposed to believe that the sun orbits this planet guided by the horn of a winged unicorn?” He sounded rather incredulous. “I will have to do some studies into it.” Sweetie Belle and Rarity rolled their eyes.
“Listen to him.” Sweetie said, “he hasn’t even met her yet and he already talks like Twilight.”
“Just wait until he does meet her, they’ll talk up a storm.” Rarity responded, giggling.
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“Now comes the tough part.” Rarity said, standing on the edge of the town limits. “How do we get Krika back to the boutique without causing a riot?” Rarity looked over to where he had been standing, there was nothing there. “Where did he go?”
“Good it works.” He re-appeared, “working invisibility. Well, it’s not technically invisibility, I’m using my mask to make ponies minds reject my image, making me practically invisible.” Rarity raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
“Whatever, lets just hope it works as well as you say it does.” They walked over the border and through the town, almost without incident, until they were about ten feet from the boutique.

“AAHH!” Ditsy Doo screamed, she had run into Krika and could now see him. She scrabbled back on her butt. “M-monster, I thought I was done with these things! Please don’t hurt me, I only knew the guy for seven years and he hasn’t even visited for twelve since then.” Krika looked at Rarity, who shrugged.
“I’m terribly sorry about the fright miss…” He helped her up with a forelimb.
“Ow! Watch the spines.” She said. “I’m Ditsy Doo.” Krika brought a claw up to his face.
“Please don’t tell anyone I’m here.” He smirked with his eyes. “They wouldn’t believe you anyway.” He turned invisible again. “He’ll be back soon by the way. I would very much like to meet him.” Ditsy’s wobbly eyes went wide and she flew off as fast as her wings could carry her.

“Who’ll be back exactly?” Rarity asked.
“Worked on matoran too.” Krika said becoming visible again. “Even before I was…” He lifted a fore claw. “This. And it‘s a secret.” Rarity nodded and they walked inside.
“Lets find you something to eat.”
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Half an hour later
“Blagart!” Krika regurgitated the twenty second try at finding something that would stay down. “I’m terribly- blag- sorry I just haven’t eaten-hurk-anything solid in a few-munk-thousand years.”
“You should have thought of that while waiting in the mud.” Rarity was starting to get on Krika’s nerves, but that was probably just the nausea speaking. He finally stopped retching and a thought popped into his head as Sweetie Belle cautiously brought in the next dish for testing.

“Wait.” He said, rejecting bile from his mask for the twenty second time that day. “Back home my species lived off ambient light, well, before the swamp got to me. I’m going to see if that still works with an entirely organic body.” He walked over to the window, opening it wide and drank deeply of the light. Krika's shadow expanded until it filled the spot of light the window made and started creeping towards Sweetie Belle and Rarity.

“Krika.” Rarity said testily and he cut the feeding line. Light refilled the room instantaneously, as if none had just been eaten.
“Sorry I got a bit greedy.” He said timidly.
“What would have happened if that had touched us?” Rarity questioned.
“I-Lets just say you would have a lot more black to your coat.” He grimaced. “I don’t like to talk about it.”

“M-mister Krika?” Krika perked back up, Sweetie Belle hadn’t said a word to him since he had apologized for scaring her.
“Just Krika, please.” He asked, letting himself enjoy the warm feeling a full belly of light gave him.
“O-okay, Krika, why do you wear that mask?” He opened his mouth to answer but shut it. He stopped for a second in thought.

“Perhaps it’s better if I just show you.” He brought up his forelimbs and removed the mask. Sweetie Belle cocked her head.
“You don’t look that bad.” Krika blinked, Rarity brought a mirror up to his face. He looked almost like the stallions they had passed on the way to the boutique, only more gaunt and his horn lay flat on his forehead, arching up between his ears. He looked back at the rest of his body, the light had filled him out nicely. He no longer looked like a barely held together collection of bones, just slightly malnourished. Oh well, all things in stages. Sweetie Belle smiled. “You should leave it off, you’re a lot less scary this way.” The simple smile made him feel even warmer inside, no one had ever smiled at him before.
“Alright.” He said. “As long as you don’t stop smiling at me.” And he smiled back.
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Two days later
Krika was a quiet houseguest, most of the time. When not going out of his way to entertain Sweetie Belle, he spent his time analyzing anything he could get his pincers on. When asked why he was willing to drop literally anything he was doing to entertain Sweetie Bell, he would simply reply, ‘she smiles at me.’ He mostly stayed out of the way and avoided being a burden at all times, nothing really changed with him around. Except Sweetie Belle all but had a second shadow when not at school. He had filled out quite nicely, even his voice was no longer as raspy and he now looked properly fed, even if when he stretched it sounded like his bones were breaking.

Sweetie Belle came charging through the door home from school at the usual time.
“Rarity, Krika.” She yelled, Krika slithered down from his hiding place above the door and Rarity poked her head out from her workroom. “I told my friends about Krika.” She babbled excitedly.
“And?” Rarity pressed
“They wanna meet him.” Krika blinked.
“How exactly did the subject come up?” He asked.
“Well, Apple Bloom was talking about this huge bat that landed in the orchard last night, she said that it drank moonlight and its shadow grew. So I said I knew someone like that, then they asked if they could meet you; they’re waiting outside.” Krika thought for a second, there were five Makuta he could think of that looked like giant bats, only one of which he was on good terms with. He decided to take the opportunity to question Apple Bloom in order to determine the identity of the Makuta.

“Okay I’ll go.” Krika nodded, Sweetie Belle cheered loudly and ran back out the door. “But, I’ll have a little fun with them first.” He mused to himself, activating his mask, he opened the door.
“Here he is.” Sweetie Belle said enthusiastically. “Where’d he go?”
“What’s up Sweetie, is he comin’ or not?” Scootaloo asked testily.
“Boo.” Krika whispered, materializing between Scootaloo and Apple Bloom’s heads. They both nearly jumped out of their skins, fleeing over to Sweetie Belle who was doubled over in laughter. Krika smiled, removing his mask. “Now that’s an ambush.” He said proudly, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo cocked their heads.
“He looks almost normal without the mask.” Apple Bloom spoke up, smiling at him.
“Why thank you.” Krika bowed low to them. “I am Makuta Krika. Miss. Apple Bloom, is it?” She nodded. “What color was the bat from last night?” He asked politely.
“It was blue and silver.” She responded, just as nicely.
“Than you’ve seen Makuta Vamprah. If you ever do meet him properly be gentle, he’s a sensitive soul.”

“Mare, Twilight would have a field day with this guy.” Scootaloo said, marveling at the creature that had appeared out of thin air.
“Twilight?” Krika cocked his head.
“Twilight Sparkle is the town librarian and resident scientist.” Sweetie Belle verified.
“A fellow being of science. I would very much like to meet her, could you three be my guides?” The three fillies huddled together whispering while Krika curled up, propping his head on the end of his tail and waiting patiently.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SHAPARONES!” they yelled at the top of their lungs, making Krika cringe. They could give Gorast a run for her widgets, he thought to himself. “We’ll do it but yal’ll have to be invisible for the walk there; the library is on the other side of town and we don’t wanna scare anypony.”
“Alright.” Krika said, rubbing his ears. He donned his mask and faded from view. “Take me there.”

The walk there was rather uneventful, other than Krika having to stifle his laughter as the three fillies circled his invisible form, guiding him with determination only a child at play could possess. Once they arrived, Krika walked up to the door and knocked, still invisible. The small purple dragon, Spike, opened the door.
“Who is-aahh!” Krika tapped the small being on the head, allowing it to see him. Krika then had to stop Spike from slamming the door on his face.
“May I come in? I would very much like to take this off.” He tapped his mask.
“No way; the last time a creature got in here it nearly took my job. And he was a lot less scary then you are.” Spike shouted back.

“Spike who’s at the door?” Another voice called out from inside.
“Just some freak of nature, I’m telling it to leave.”
“What freak of nature?” Spike stopped pushing the door on Krika’s limb, which he was very grateful for.
“Can’t you see him?” Spike opened the door wide. On the other side, all Twilight could see were the Cutie Mark Crusaders searching their flanks again. “He’s right there Twilight.” Spike gestured out the door.
“Now Spike that’s no way to talk about those three, let them in.”

“Thank you.” Krika said, removing his mask inside the doorway. “Miss Twilight Sparkle, I presume?” He bowed low, half ignoring the look of shock on her face, which was quickly being replaced by confusion. “I am Makuta Krika; it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“H-how did you do that? It’s incredible!” Twilight asked, growing visibly excited. “Spike I’m going to need a ruler, protractor and test tubes.”
“O-okay…” Spike glared at him skeptically before running to get what Twilight asked for.
“I use this mask to repel my image from ponies minds, their subconscious usually fills in the blanks.” Krika explained.
“Incredible. May I see the mask?”

“Sure.” He handed it over. “If I may be so bold, may I have a hair or something along those lines?”
“Alright,” she responded, absentmindedly pulling a hair from her mane and levitating it up to Krika as she examined the mask with magic. Krika took the hair in his pincer, scanning it.
“Well you are brilliant," Krika started. "But during that Pinkie Pie case, I believe that simply miniaturizing the brain scan tech so she could wear it outside would have been much more effective then sticking her in a lab where not much was going to happen.”
“I guess that would hav- how did you know about that?”

“It’s simple," He explained. "I take something that I know has been on the subject for a while scan it and absorb whatever information it may have been exposed to through the subject’s ambient psychic field, things such as hair and skin do nicely and I think it’s rude to just scan the being itself, even if that usually gives a longer string of information.”
“Incredible; we are going to have so much fun together.” Spike came back with the tools she had asked for and they got right down to work.

Krika sent the Cutie Mark Crusaders home with a thank you when the sun started going down. Their research session extended into the early morning when Krika decided he should go back to see Sweetie Belle off to school.
“Thank you for such an intriguing night; you keep working on that Kenpachi problem and I’ll get back to you when I’m done with my calculations.” He said as he walked towards the door, donning his mask. He looked at spike, who was sitting asleep next to the door with a pot on his head and a ladle in his hand. Twilight had said to make sure they weren’t disturbed and he had fallen asleep at his post. Krika smiled, being as quiet as possible closing the door.
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Later that afternoon
Sweetie Belle had already left for school by the time Krika got home. She didn’t know why this made her sad but she knew he’d be right above the doorway when she got home. She was running to the door when she spotted a pumpkin, just sitting on the doorstep. She opened the door.
“Rarity, Krika.” She yelled, closing the door behind her. As usual, Rarity poked her head out from her workroom but Krika peeked over the couch, levitating a pad and paper near his face and scribbling something on it.
“Yes Sweetie Belle?” He said distractedly.
“Did either of you know that there's a pumpkin on the doorstep?” Krika looked up from whatever he was doing.
“What kind of pumpkin?” He asked expectantly.
“I don’t know but it’s a weird one, it’s a perfect sphere.”

Krika went even paler than normal and bolted for the door, opening it wide and he froze still as a statue. Sweetie Belle walked up next to him. He tried to get rid of it again and again but every time the pumpkin moved it came back. “What’s wrong with the pumpkin Krika?”
“It would take too long to explain, just go inside and tell Rarity to keep this door locked; do not open it for any reason until this thing is gone.” He stared angrily at the sky as he spoke.
“Why?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Go inside.”
“Bu-”
“Go inside!” He growled at her, the air seemed to go dark and his eyes, usually soft and timid, had gone hard, full of fear and anger.

She was lifted off her feet and thrown back through the door, which slammed itself shut. She curled up and shivered in fear; the only other time his eyes had been that hard was when he had tried to eat her.
“Sweetie Belle I’m going out for my nightly walk- what’s wrong dear?” Rarity asked, concerned.
“K-Krika scared me.” She stammered.
“Well I’ll find him and give him a stern talking to, see you.” Rarity opened the door stepping outside.
“Rarity wait!” Sweetie Belle yelled as her sister shut the door. There was a rattling noise and snarling from outside and Rarity screamed. Sweetie Belle ran to the door and locked it. She then ran to the window and looked out; Rarity was covered in slimy, Blue and green, leech-like creatures, her coat and mane turning black, as the screams were silenced the leeches fell off, slinking away in search of new victims.

The Black Rarity got up, opening its eyes, which were a sickly green and filled with malice. She started laughing, a cruel insane laugh that made Sweetie Belle’s blood run cold. Unable to watch anymore, Sweetie Belle ducked back behind the curtains.
“Sweetie Belle, let me iiin.~” The Black Rarity called in a tilting parody of Rarity’s voice. Sweetie Belle just sat shivering under the curtains. “Darling, I won’t stand for this!” The Black Rarity yelled at her through the door, slamming on it with something.
“Krika help.” Sweetie Belle whispered, closing her eyes.