Living The Dream

by Kickass222urmom

Lines finally crossed

“Stop fighting me,” I grumble as Shayla dashes all around in front of me, the foal leash attached to her backpack snapping as she’d run it taunt, yanking me around as she did so. Every time she’d change directions and sprint at full speed to the other side she’d cause me to stumble as I held on tightly with my teeth to the leash.

As we walked down the street, a mare and her kid gave me a disapproving look. 

“Don’t judge me!” I snapped as she ran around my front leg and almost caused me to trip over the leash. “Shayla!”

She laughed like a maniac, causing the two judgmental ponies to shy away quickly.

This continued till we neared the forest path that lead to Adry’s and Mr. Bleaks house, which is when Shayla realized where we were going and began to pull me down the path as fast as she could.

The moment we neared the end of the path I saw Mallogory had beaten me there and was talking with Mr. Bleak.

“Late as usual,” she said as we neared, causing me to roll my eye.

“How about next time you are on Shayla duty, hm? See who’s late then!” I say, sticking my tongue out as Roxxy laughed at us from next to Mr. Bleak’s leg.

Shayla let out a happy laugh as she strained against the leash, trying to get to Roxxy. 

“Hang on, sweetie,” I said as I pulled her closer and unstrapped the backpack from her. She jumped forward and bounced in front of Roxxy.

Roxxy jumped up and playfully growled at her, causing Shayla to pounce on her. The two rolled around laughing and ‘fighting’ each other, but not actually hurting one another.

“So cute,” I chuckled as the two fillies rolled away from us, and towards Adry as she worked in her garden.

“Back to what we were talking about,” Mr. Bleak said as he looked back to Mallogory. “Your Thorn still has not fully recovered?”

She held up her hand, showing the dull glow coming from her Stomata, “almost not at all. It’s been over a year and I’m still at the same level of recovery as the day it happened.”

“Can it even be fixed?” He asked, rubbing his chin. 

“It should fix itself, without me having to do anything,” she replied, looking a bit worried. “In my dimension on my home planet of Eris, it only takes a few months to heal most damage, and a year at most for anything more severe.”

“Hm,” Mr. Bleak said, seeming to be stuck on how to help.

“On Eris our bodies produce Sucro, which is basically what powers our souls, to put it as simply as I can,” she continued, frowning as she looked at her hand. “It's possible my body isn’t able to produce enough Sucro because of the Watcher’s soul breaking attack. So that’s awesome.”

I grimaced a bit as a pained look flashed across her face, “how can we fix it?”

“Well it could be simple,” she says, looking to me, “we’d just have to go to Eris and wait long enough for my Sucro production to recover enough to get me back to normal. Since Sucro naturally occurs in my dimension, it can accumulate in almost anything, so just being there will be enough to heal me and return my Thorn to full power.”

“Well that settles that then,” I say, the two looking at me, “we’re going to Eris to heal you.”

She blinked at me and let out a laugh, “oh! Scamp my love, no, no. We’re not going to Eris.”

This caught me off guard, “What? Why not?”

“It’s dangerous there for one,” she replied with a smile. “Our moon is a literal dead head that is dangerous to look at because it’ll drive you insane and turn you into a monster if you look at it too long. Not only that, the wilderness around the cities are filled with all kinds of creatures and beings called Rust.”

“I think we can handle that,” I say, waving her off.

“Also, to not stand out we’d have to shrink down to around six inches, which is the normal height of my people and most other denizens. Animals are normal sized, so they’re a massive threat if you’re not careful,” she continued, making me frown a bit at being shrunk down that small. “If you’re still thinking we’d be okay, then you need to understand there are threats that are so dangerous I’d never be able to portray just how bad they are.”

I shake my head at her, “honestly I don’t care. If this is the only way to actually fix your Thorn and soul, then I’m willing to risk it.”

She knelt in front of me and placed one hand on my shoulder and cupped my cheek with the other. “Scamp, I love you, and it means everything to me that you’re so determined to help me get back to normal. But I can’t risk losing you. I’ll get better, eventually. There’s no need to rush and put ourselves in danger.”

I place my paw on her hand as she held my cheek, “you also know I’m stubborn as fuck, and that I’m not letting this go.”

“I know,” she said, giving me a kiss, “but good luck with that. The only way to get back into my home dimension is to have a denizen of it willingly guide you there. And I’m not willing to do that, and never will. As much as I’d love to show you and Shayla off to my family, I can’t risk it.”

“The only way to reach your dimension is with the help of a denizen?” Mr. Bleak asked from behind her.

“Yes,” she said, giving me another peck on the snout as she stood up and faced him. “My home dimension is on lockdown for some reason, it’s hidden from all others and is impossible to find. I can return there pretty simply though; all I need is a device that allows dimensional travel and simply by wanting to go there I’ll just know the right inputs.”

“Now that’s neat,” I muttered. “We’re going.”

“Any more questions, Darkest?” She asked, ignoring me. 

He started to say something, but the two wrestling fillies slammed into his leg and broke apart, with Shayla rolling in front of Mallogory.

“I want Thorn!” she suddenly yelled, proving she can play fight and listen to the adults at the same time.

“Well now we have to go,” I say, smirking at her. “You gonna say no to that face?”

Shayla took the hint and jumped into a cute little pose, staring up with her big green eyes, lip pouting as she stared at Mallogory.

Mallogory just smiled as she reached down and picked her up, “you can have a Thorn! Here!” She opened her personal pocket dimension and pulled out a candy bar. “A Thorn!”

“A Thorn!” Shayla screamed as she grabbed it and devoured it instantly. “More!”

She pulled out three more, handing them to her as she ate two and jumped down, running to Roxxy. “Take Thorn!” she exclaimed as she shoved the chocolate into the other fillies mouth.

“That’s a dirty trick,” I frown at her as she winks at me.

Duke Venture and Ezeria stepped out of the Hot Topic, wearing fresh jackets with their favorite band’s logos on them.

“Your parents are so awesome!” Ezeria said as he looked down at his new threads.

“Wait till you see the new stuff they’re working on!” Duke Venture replied, smiling widely. “They’re going to-” he was cut off as he ran into Jelly Bean as she was walking by the store.

“Oh, sorry, Jelly Bean,” he said, a bit nervous as she glared at him, her Wolverine Kamae jacket making her look quite intimidating.

“Hm,” she mumbled as she walked past them and walked into the store.

“Dude, I’m a little worried about her,” Ezeria finally said after they’d walked a little bit away from the store. “She used to be a lot nicer, but after that fight at school, she’s been glaring at me whenever my mom takes me to the Mellowed Pie.”

“Yeah, she’s done the same when I’m there, but it’ll be okay. She’s just upset she joined the wrong Dojo,” Duke Venture chuckled as they continued down the block.

But after a few minutes of walking, four Wolverine Kamae colts stepped out of a store and smiled at them.

“Oh no,” Duke Venture said as they turned to go back the way they’d come, but saw Jelly Bean and ten other Wolverine Kamae smiling at them.

“Uh… hey guys,” Ezeria said with a nervous wave.

Spark opened his window slowly as he looked back to his bed where he’d left a decoy of himself sleeping, just in case anyone peaked in on him. Listening closely, he couldn’t hear anyone out in the hall, so he fully opened the window and hovered out quietly, closing it behind him.

Slowly flapping his wings, he raised up to the roof, waiting till he was above the house to take off as usual.

But as his head reached the edge of the roof, he came to a halt, wide eyed as he and his Dad stared at each other in shock.

Lance blinked at him, a cigar in his hoof and a few bottles of alcohol propped up next to him.

Slowly, Lance raised a wing tip to his mouth, shushing Spark. “I didn’t see shit if you didn’t see shit.”

Spark slowly nodded, “I ain’t seeing anything, Dad.”

“Eeyep,” Lance said with a nod as he laid back on the roof, staring up at the night sky.

Taking the hint, Spark flew off as quickly as he could.

He couldn’t help but chuckle as he flew towards town. “Mom would kill Dad if she knew what he was doing,” he said aloud to himself.

After flying for a bit, he finally landed at the doors to the Dojo. Looking inside, he was relieved to see not everyone had arrived yet. Sensei Scamp wasn’t even out yet.

Pushing the door open, everyone turned to see him, all of their faces lighting up as he stepped in.

“Spark!” a few yelled as they rushed to him as he walked onto the training mats. 

“Hey guys!” he said excitedly as he slammed hooves with a few of them.

“Spark?” Sensei Scamp said as she appeared in her office doorway. “Your Mom actually let you come back already?”

He smiled sheepishly as he looked at her, “Eh… she doesn’t know I’m here.”

She frowned at him, but then smiled, “well, as far as I know she told you you could be here. Welcome back!”

A sigh of relief escaped his lips, “Thank you, Sensei!”

“LINES!” she roared, causing everyone to rush to their places. She looked at all the kids, counting heads. “We’re still missing three, so till they get here, jumping jacks! Everyone up!”

Everyone stood to their hindlegs and assumed the correct position.

“Begin!” she yelled, causing everyone to start jumping up and down in place, raising and lowering their legs as they did so.

She watched as they went, counting out every ten jumping jacks they performed.

Suddenly, the front doors burst open and two colts stumbled in.

“Halt!” Sensei Scamp yelled as her eye widened, causing everyone to come to a stop. With out another word she rushed through the students and slid up to the two who entered. “Duke Venture?! Ezeria?! What the fuck happened to you two?!”

Everyone turned to see the two young colts badly beaten and shaking violently.

“Wofine kaym,” Ezeria struggled to talk through his swollen jaw.

“They ganged up on us out of nowhere,” Duke Venture said as he tried his hardest to not cry in front of everyone. “We didn’t even do anything this time, just tried to go home to play video games!”

Sensei Scamp’s eye twitched as she stood up and pointed to the locker rooms, “Go get cleaned up. Nose Ring, go get them a medkit from my office and get that swelling down.”

Lilly bowed, “yes, Sensei!” Then rushed to do as she was told as a few others helped the two colts to the locker rooms.

“Sensei Scamp?” Spark asked as he walked up to her, noticing she was shaking a bit.

“Bastard,” she muttered, then looked at him. “This is exactly what I was afraid of. They’re not going to let the school fight go, and are probably going to keep doing shit like this.”

“What do we do?” Spark asked as the kids all looked to her for guidance.

She looked them all over, growling a bit, “I’m going to handle it. But for now, I want all of you to stay in groups of three at all times. More if possible. Avoid any Wolverine Kamae you see for the foreseeable future.”

“That’s hard, I live in a neighborhood full of them,” Blaze said, looking worried.

“I’m sorry, I’ll see what I can do about this,” Sensei Scamp replied, looking to Spark. “You’re in charge till I return.”

“Where are you going?” he asked as she walked for the door. 

“To speak with Wolverine Kamae,” she said, stepping outside and slamming the door.

With a rough kick, I slammed the door open, causing a boom to echo through the Dojo.

“Vicar Belletor! Get your ass out here!” I bellowed as I stomped into the Training Hall, all the students and teachers stopping to watch me.

“Scamp! I knew you’d be here tonight!” Vicar exclaimed as he stepped out of his office on the second floor and stood at the top of the stairs, staring out over the Training Hall.

“Your students attacked two of mine tonight, unprovoked!” I yelled, slamming a hoof down.

“Three of them,” he suddenly said, a smile on his face. “The third one, uh what’s his name?”

“Lurka,” the one named Blitz yelled, causing the colts around him to snicker and slam hooves together.

“Yes, Lurka. He’s currently in the hospital I believe,” he said with a chuckle. Then with an even wider smile, he continued, “before you get any ideas, I’ve already spoken with his parents. They’ve declined to press charges against my students. Since their son started it.”

“Yeah, by being a little pussy,” the colt named Butch laughed, causing me to snap my head to them, causing them to fall silent.

I growled as I turned back to Vicar as he stared down at me with those stupid sunglasses, “these are just children! You’re turning them into monsters!”

“I’m turning them into exactly what they need to be to take on the future,” he replied in a rehearsed way, like he’d practiced that line more than once.

“You need to stop this,” I say as I take a step towards him, but all of the teachers take a few steps towards me in response. All ten of them were here.

“You’re technically trespassing right now,” Vicar says confidently. “Any actions we take will be justified. Tread lightly.”

I glared at him and cast my gaze over the students around me. “You are all good kids! Some of you know me personally! Why are you letting them fill your heads with all this aggression!”

A few looked away from me, but most just stared back defiantly, like I was the enemy here.

“Attacking others for no reason is not the way to handle your anger!” I yelled, causing Vicar to laugh loudly.

“Scamp, you’re not welcome here, leave. Now,” Vicar said in a stern tone.

“Not till we deal with this little vendetta your students have with mine!” I yell, pointing a hoof right at him. “This stops now. Call them off, or I’m going to the authorities!”

This just causes him to laugh loudly, then like a switch was thrown, he becomes serious “Do it! In their eyes, you and your kids are the aggressors! Lurka’s parents have solidified that by making their son apologize to my students for starting the fight! Not to mention the school fight! All the videos make it look like your student Spark started it! You have no leg to stand on, pony!”

I blinked at him as he seemed to be seething with rage, which I was not used to seeing. 

“There’s no way anyone thinks the way you do!” I snapped back, causing him to slam a hoof into the wall, causing everyone in the room but me to flinch. 

“I’m done! I’ve been playing this stupid Dojo game to have some fun, but you’re making it more of an annoyance! Break her, now!” he roared, as his sunglasses fell off as he threw his head around. 

My eye went wide as I made direct eye contact with him. “That’s not p-”

Everything went white as one of the teachers seemed to appear before me and slam a hoof right into my good eye.

Then all hell broke loose as all the teachers jumped for me as I tried to ready myself for the sudden attack.

“Where is she?!” Mallogory screamed at the receptionist pony as she slammed her claws down on the desk.

“Ma’am?!” the startled nurse yelped, not knowing who she was asking for.

“Are you looking for Scamp?” a doctor who knew her asked as he was rushing by.

“Yes!” Mallogory yelled as he waved for her to follow. “What happened?!”

“It’s complicated,” the doctor said as they rushed through the double doors and down the hall. “An ambulance was called for her and she was found unresponsive at the scene.”

“But is she okay?!” she screamed as they rushed past all the frantic staff.

“I…” he started. “I can’t say.”

“WHAT?!” she bellowed, causing everyone to flee from the area as they ran down the now mostly empty hall.

“I’m… sorry, I don't have enough details to say otherwise,” he stammered as he came to a stop at a door and pushed it open.

Without another word, Mallogory rushed in and let out a pained yelp as she saw Scamp laid out on the bed, tubes and blood bags attached to her. She looked absolutely horrible, like she’d fallen into a rock tumbler. The only things not damaged on her were her two prosthetics, but everything else was not as lucky.

“Who did this?!” Mallogory screamed, wheeling on the doctor. 

“I can’t tell you, the police-” the doctor began but was cut off.

“What do you mean you can’t tell me?!” She roared.

“The police know all the details, they’re still here if you-” he began, but was cut off.

“Get them! Right now!” she growled, causing him to quickly run out of the room.

She turned back to Scamp, feeling both absolute anger and sadness at seeing her beloved companion like this.

“Useless!” Mallogory roared as she slammed her hands into the table, shattering it to pieces immediately. 

She’d spoken to the police, but they informed her that Scamp was the aggressor and had attacked Vicar in his own Dojo. When she pressed them to look into it, they told her it was a simple and shut case. Video footage revealed the whole thing.

They allowed her to watch the footage, and it showed Scamp kick down the door and rush in and start yelling. You can’t hear what is being said, but you can tell it's passionate by her movements. Then suddenly a teacher walked up to her and Scamp jumped on her with no warning. The footage cuts as they did not want to show her the fight itself.

Something was off about the way Scamp moved in the video, like it wasn’t actually her. But when she voiced this opinion, the police told her the video footage was untampered, even though she was talking about Scamp herself not the footage.

Before they left, they told Mallogory that Scamp was lucky; Vicar Belletor pulled a lot of strings and made sure that Scamp would not be charged for tonight. As long as she stayed away from his Dojo going forward.

This all seemed so weird and suspicious to Mallogory. This isn’t how shit like this is supposed to work! Not at all! It’s like this asshole Vicar has a hoof in everything! Manipulating the game to be played by his rules, and his rules alone.

Doing her best to calm down, she looked back to Scamp, and became enraged all over again. 

She was going to go down there and-

“Mrs. Beltosh,” Vicar said from the doorway as he stepped into the room.

“You!” she growled as she stepped towards him, her eyes filled with murder. But before she reached him, one of his unicorn teachers stepped around him and flashed their horn, hitting her with a small beam.

She let out another growl as she stumbled back and fell into the chair behind her. 

“There, I don’t want you acting rash before we can talk,” he said as she found herself unable to move. That spell did not feel like a unicorns magic. It felt familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

“Now,” he continued, pulling up a chair and taking a seat across from her. “I want this to end right here, right now.”

“Oh it’s going to,” she said with narrowed eyes.

“Take me to your home dimension,” he said simply, catching her completely off guard.

“What?” she asked dumbfounded.

“You heard me. I’m making a deal. Take me to your home dimension, and I’ll leave. Never to come back. You and Scamp here can live happily with your daughter, and it’ll be like I never existed,” he said, sitting back with a triumphant smile.

She glared at him, thinking hard on what he was saying. “You think, after what you did tonight, that I’m going to help you?! I don’t care what you offered me, I’m not doing a damn thing you want!”

“I could kill her,” he said simply as the pony with him stepped up to Scamp, pulling out a needle.

“Whoa whoa, stop,” she said evenly, staring daggers at the smiling pony before her. “Why do you want to go to my home dimension?”

“My own reasons,” he chuckled, not revealing anything. “Just agree to this simple request and this all ends now.”

“Fuck you,” she growled as she flickered, screaming in agony as she forced her Thorn to work, and jumped forward, slamming the pony with the needle into the wall. A simple strike to the face knocked them out as she spun on Vicar. “I’m going to kill you.”

“Ah, I was wondering if that Thorn of yours could be used to bypass paralytic effects,” he chuckled as he stood there, not looking worried at all. “Answer me now; do you accept my deal?”

“You’re not very smart,” she said as she stepped towards him.

“Pity. Psalm dear,” he said as the tired looking mare stepped into the room, her baggy eyes staring at Mallogory.

“You’re going to need more than that,” she growled as she neared Vicar, but the dark mare moved faster than Mallogory thought she could. Jumping up and touching her horn to her forehead.

Before she could react, the pony's horn flashed.

Mallogory let out a gasp as she sat up in the hospital chair, looking around as she struggled to remember where she was.

As she saw Scamp, she remembered. 

She’d been injured after trying to attack Wolverine Kamae because their students were attacking hers.

She grabbed her head, as she had a splitting headache for some reason.

Scamp suddenly let out a groan, causing Mallogory to jump up and stand over her. But she didn’t wake up, just let out ragged breaths.

With a defeated sigh, Mallogory fell back in her chair, unsure of what to do now. Or what to tell their daughter.