Dimensions of the Elder Gods

by Balkanboy

Shambler Showdown

Chapter 5: Shambler Showdown

Fluttershy galloped after the cage in a manner braver than she would usually adopt, though when one of the soldiers stepped in front of her she stopped and became timid once more.
‘Um, excuse me but that’s my friend you’re taking away there...’
‘All prisoners of the Princess are to be brought back to the castle!’ He stated in a be-all-end-all tone.
‘But he isn’t a bad pony, maybe there’s some arrangement or something...’
‘The prisoner is to be brought to the princess, no exceptions.’ She tried to walk past him but he forced her back with his body, the yellow mare falling to the ground. As soon as that happened a blur of orange slammed into him and stumbled backwards, a dent in his helmet. Standing over him, Appplejack looked him straight in the eyes.
‘No one treats mah friend like that!’ He seemed genuinely scared as all his attempts to get up were met with a hoof to the gut. Another blur, this time grey sent Applejack flying and she landed next to Fluttershy who still hadn’t gotten up. Another guard had come and was helping his friend up.

‘Thanks, though I had it under control,’ he said to his comrade. The soldier smirked.
‘Yeah sure you did...’ They turned to face the two mares, whom cowered slightly. Tyral’s head popped above the heads of both the guards.
‘What’s going on here?’ He asked calmly, indifferent to the situation.
‘These mares thought it fit to assault one of our officers sir.’
‘Is that so?’

He slinked up to Applejack and Fluttershy, absorbing every detail.
‘I do believe that assaulting military officials is a crime, soldier.’
‘It is sir.’ Wrenching Fluttershy’s face up, he angled it to check her teeth.
‘And what does this prisoner mean to you?’ She hesitated.
‘He-he’s my uncle...’ The captain smiled.
‘Family, eh?’
‘We-well not exactly, he’s more of a, um, close f-f-family friend.’ His smile dropped.
‘Well, good enough I suppose.’ He turned to the soldier. ‘Get her into the cage, he’ll like this one.’

The two officers bore down on her. Applejack tried to defend her, but last time she had been lucky more than anything else, catching him off guard. Now they were ready, their armour covering most of their bodies. Every hit made her hooves ache, and when the larger one bucked her aside, she found it hard to get up. Fluttershy couldn’t stand seeing her friend get hurt, and her sadness turned into anger.

‘How... DARE you!’ She stared at the two of them, the soldiers suddenly stopping and advanced. ‘How would you like it if someone came to your home and hurt your friends huh? It’s a good thing your mothers aren’t here, otherwise I’m sure they would be very disappointed in you two, now what do have to say for yourselves?’ She shouted, the two stumbling over in fear. Their helmets obscured their expressions, making it hard for her to discern whether they were going to apologize. One of them started to move their lips...

...then everything went black.

------------

Peter reappeared in a small room that he didn’t recognise, and it was completely bare save for a lit candle on the floor. He made for the only door and shut it behind him as the dimensional shambler appeared. This place looked like a workshop or lab, perhaps a mix with all manner of tools and chemicals lying around on tables and shelves, and, the final thing which told him where he probably was, his shotgun.

He ran up to it and embraced it like a mother hugs her child then turned to the door. The shambler quite literally ran into it, smashing it to bits. Seeing him, it roared in anger then charged. He fired the first barrel at him and side stepped to allow it to run into a wall in a similar fashion to matadors. It shook itself in frustration and roared again, holes where the shrapnel had penetrated its hide.

Round about this time Princess Luna opened the door on his left and the shambler noticed, readying itself to charge her. She saw him first, and was about to call the guards when the shambler slammed into her. She is one unlucky pony. He ran out the door and came out into what seemed to be a bedroom.

Luna had been sent flying across the whole room and the shambler bore down on her, claws bared. She tried to concentrate on doing magic, but it slammed its fists across her head on her old wound and threw her again. Now she was too disorientated to do anything and the monster would have its prize. She looked up at its face - a twisted version of a human- and trembled.

‘Please, don’t do this,’ she whimpered. Unfortunately for her, dimensional shamblers had never been ones for talking, and so he readied himself to gut her.

Unfortunately for him Peter was too nice a guy to let this happen, and he put himself in its way, stuck the shotgun straight into its mouth and pulled the trigger sending bits of brain and skin flying everywhere, staining the windows and walls. He lowered his aim and turned to help the princess up only to find she was limping towards the doors.

Stop her, she’ll call the guards!

He dashed for the doors and pulled her back as she started opening one.
‘Not so fast miss, wouldn’t want you alerting the others would we?’ She tried to do some magic but her horn sparked and fizzed out. She was simply too beat to do anything. He hoisted her up onto the bed then got behind a bookcase and pushed it in the way of the doors, all the time, Luna watching with a sense of dread. He pushed a few more items of furniture in the way then reloaded both barrels with his remaining shells.

I wonder why there haven’t been any guards knocking on the door by now? Surely theren should be someone waiting outside. Don’t know, don’t care as long as no one is trying to kill me.

Luna wondered what to do in the situation. She thought back to the countless fiction novels she had read where the hero or heroin meets their arch nemesis, but “we meet again” sounded a bit too cliched.
‘So I assume you are here to kill me.’ She stated plainly, trying to hide the fear she felt.
‘Kill you?’ He snorted, ‘why would I want to kill you?’
‘Tia told me everything, she told me that last time you tried to the guards stopped you, so you ran!’

I think she means the prison. Oh that?

‘I wasn’t trying to kill you, a spell of mine just fu-,’ she raised an eyebrow, ‘messed up. Sorry about that bump.’ He took one of the pillows and wiped the blood off the windows.
‘Hey! Those are my pillows, and you’re getting the blood of that- that- that...’ She looked at it properly for the first time, taking in its twisted form.

You should stop her before she goes insa- On it.

‘Hey, hey don’t look at it.’ He ran in front of her dropping his gun to the floor and moved her head, staring into her eyes. ‘Look at me, don’t look at it. It’s bad enough you’re hurt, it’ll be worse if you lose you mind.’ Pulling a handkerchief off of the table next to them, he wiped the blood from her forehead, adding doubt to her original assumptions of him being dangerous, though not enough to dispel all of them from her head.

She flinched but otherwise didn’t move.
‘So if you’re not here to kill me, why are you here?’ He reached into his pocket, then remembered he didn’t have his flask with him.
‘Same as last time, running.’ Picking his gun back up, he walked over to an overturned chair, righted it and sat down on it. ‘Say, you have anything to drink round here?’ She pointed to a jug of water on the other side of the room, which he went to, still watching him. His behaviour was very odd. He acted for the most part as though nothing had happened and seemed relaxed yet extremely tense at the same time, as though everything was out to get him. He also disregarded the body in the middle of the room, though he was a murderer, that probably came with the occupation.

After taking a swig of the jug, not bothering to pour himself a glass he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and looked at her.
‘Is there any other way out of this place?’ She shook her head.
‘Not unless you go back through that portal, which I must say was pretty clever of you. How did you know to go to my old castle?’
‘...what now?’
‘Those ruins, how did you know that I had a portal there? Bribed a few guards, maybe?’ Peter scratched his head in thought.

‘I wasn’t looking for that portal back there.’
‘Nonsense, no pony would go to an abandoned castle for fun, you must have been there so you could get back here.’ He walked back to the door he had come from and peeked inside. He hadn’t missed anything, it was exactly the same as last time. She followed him, worried he might touch something.
‘No, I was looking for somewhere to hide and it just so happened that your portal was a handy way out.’

The entrance to her room started to open but was barred by the furniture. Peter frowned.
‘Is there any other way out of here?’ She shook her head.

Well isn’t that just crap. Looks like we’re going back through the portal. You have a gun, you could easily get through any guards! Yeah, but it’s that princess I’m worried about. No doubt she’ll be a problem.

‘I’ll be off then.’ He walked to where the portal was and was about to step back into it when she stopped him.

‘Where are you going!?’
‘I’m going back to those ruins seeing as it’s my only way out.’
‘But you can’t go back through this way, it’s too dangerous!’ He held the shotgun up.
‘I’ll be fine.’ She shook her head.
‘No, you don’t understand, the portal is, broken, you’ll be teleported to a completely random location!’

All Peter could could think was, ‘...again?’

‘How exactly is it... broken?’
‘Well, I made this portal when I was a filly, over a 1000 years ago...’

Wait, what?

‘Woah, woah, scroll back, what was that? A thousand years ago?’ She looked as though he had asked a stupid question.
‘Yeah, 1000 years.’ He was going to ask more, but decided against it. Understanding how the arcane worked wasn’t always a good idea, especially if there just so happened to be elder gods involved...

‘Uh, right, so you were saying?’
‘Oh yes, well I made this portal when I was a filly, so that I could go between palaces whenever I wanted. Unfortunately, being a filly, I sort of, messed it up.’
‘So when did you know something was wrong?’
‘I went through it.’
‘And where did you end up?’ She didn’t respond.
‘Let’s just say it was dark, kind of like a... nightmare.’

Somepony started attempting to kick the door down.
‘Okay, uh, is there any other way out of here?’
‘No, besides I wouldn’t tell you, you’re a criminal and you must be stopped,’ she put it rather matter-of-factly.
‘Fine I’ll find my own way out-’ A flash of white light appeared and in its stead was Princess Celestia, her face turning to confusion, then anger when she saw him.

Instinctively, driven by fear, he jumped into the portal (again) and everything went black (again).

------------

Fluttershy was gone, and Twilight had no idea what to do. This was the army, the left hoove of Celestia, they did things that nopony would dream of doing. They were supposed to do it for the good of Equestria, providing safety for the inhabitants and so on, as her lessons as a filly had taught her, but she could see no reason for what was essentially the kidnap of one of her best friends.

‘Spike, take a letter.’ The baby dragon pulled a quill and notepad off of the desk next to him, and got ready. She started pacing around the room, as she tried to think of what to say. ‘Dear Princess Celestia...’ She paused. If Celestia had ordered it, there must have been a reason. Of course it wasn’t on purpose, it must be a mistake. ‘...I am writing to you regarding-’

An explosion of blue propelled her back, slamming her into a bookshelf. When she poked her head out of the pile of books now covering her, she noticed something there that hadn’t been there before. The monster was standing in the middle of the room, scorched marks around him, looking very surprised.

He looked about for any signs of life.

Isn’t that the purple pony from earlier? I didn’t have much time to get a good look. Well it is. She has that sparkly cutie mark.

‘Um, hello,’ his voice echoed off the walls of the giant tree he appeared to be in. After a few moments of wide eyed terror, she realised that he probably wasn’t going to harm her, at least not yet. ‘Are you, uh, okay?’

It took a few moments for her to realise she was trembling.
‘Oh, you’re in my library in Ponyville.’ Her voice was fairly shaky. Who knew what it would do to her, or why it was here?

Ponyville again?

‘Is Slate okay?’ He asked quickly, striding to the window next to the door to take a look outside.
‘Who?’
‘Fluttershy’s uncle.’ She sagged.

‘Oh, you just missed him... The army took them both.’ He paused.
‘Did you see which way they went?’
‘Into the forest and- hey why am I telling him anything?’ She said to herself angrily. Spike emerged from his hiding place behind the desk.

‘Is that the monster you were telling me about Twilight?’ He asked, moving to her side in a manner less fearful than that of the purple spell caster. Peter smiled. It was better than animal.
‘Nothing bad I hope,’ he said jokingly.
‘Bad? You hurt Rainbow Dash, you’re evil!’ It didn’t take him long to make the connection.

‘Ah crap, yeah sorry about that. I was in a bit of a rush, so...’
‘You hit her?’ He said reproachfully. Peter shrugged.
‘Shit happens.’ Spike was taken aback by that response. Most ponies would have just given in by now, their conscience getting the better of them, but he seemed completely unfazed. Well he had apologised at least... sort of...

‘I’d probably better go save them then...’ Twilight cocked her head.
‘You what?’
‘I said I’m going to save them. I doubt the army is going to be very hospitable, and your yellow friend doesn’t seem like the brave type.’
‘Yes...’ She was surprised. She hadn’t expected it to be willing to save her friend. Maybe they could even work together? No, of course they couldn’t, he was a monster. Then again, looks aren’t everything...

‘Why are you, uh, why are you going to save them?’
‘Ms. Fluttershy was hospitable enough to me, unlike a certain princess, and I don’t like the look of that Tyral guy, seems a bit shifty.’ He sat down on a large chest that Twilight kept various bits of experiment equipment in. ‘You mind if I stay here for a while? I need a place to lay low, and this seems perfect.’ He rested his back against the wall, mumbling phrases expressing his pleasure.

‘Uhm, yes, sure why not...’ she laughed nervously while trotting backwards to the door. ‘I’ll just go down to the store we seem to be fresh out of groceries, um, Spike d’ya think you could come with me?’ He hobbled over obediently.

She shut the door softly, then sighed in relief. ‘Come on Spike, we’ve got to get the others over here, and take a scroll and quill, we’ve got to alert the princess that the beast is here.’
‘Twilight I left the scrolls inside.’
‘You, WHAT!?’ She started pacing back and forth in front of the tree library. ‘Think Twilight, think, hm... Well I suppose we’ll just have to get one from one of the girls, though I’m not really sure if they’ll have any since they don’t tend to write-’

‘You know I can hear you!’ A faint voice cried from the library.

She froze.
‘Ah, uh, hehe, I was just, uh, I was just...’ She disappeared in a cloud of dust, Spike not too far behind.

Inside, Peter just rolled his eyes and set about the important task of finding a toilet of some kind. There were only a few doors at ground level, and none of them resembled any kind of bowl, or even hole in the ground. He continued his search upstairs. This room was similar to downstairs, except it had a bed, and was of course smaller.

That door looks promising. It’s that last door left, so unless there’s an outhouse or something it had better be the one.

It was.

After relieving himself, his first step out the door was greeted by hushed whispers from down the stairs and a squeak followed by a ‘sorry’.

Are we getting out of here or... No, I'm staying. It will probably be better for everyone if I just try and explain my side of the story. When has that ever worked? Well mother always said it was best to be honest. You're referencing to your mother now? When did you start doing that? When I realised that there is a good chance I'll never see my home, or even mum ever again. ...um, okay... I'll have to become a hermit, probably live in the Everfree Forest since no one seems to go there, though those god damn stick wolf things-

There was a creak from the stairs.

(Sorry about this late chapter. Exam season is upon me, and I've been busy revising in my spare time. Not much free time left, so although I'll try to release chapters on Saturday/Sundays, they will be coming out when they are done.

On another note, although none of you give two bucks, I had two dreams about ponies the other day. The first one was a conversion bureau scenario, nothing special, but the second, that one was weird. Fluttershy was a con artist and was tricking people into giving her their clothes for free. Hmm...)

Comments

[Gamaliel]

Brilliance! i think Tyral is due an asskicking from an elder god or two