//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Dimensional Battle Royale // by RazortheAwesome //------------------------------// -Meanwhile, in Another Dimension- It took a few seconds for Razor’s vision to clear completely. All that he was absolutely certain of was that wherever he was, he was not standing in the front lawn of his house. As the white faded from his eyes, he began to get a good sense of his new surroundings. From what he could tell, he was in some kind of grassy, and definitely abandoned, courtyard in a large, ruined castle. The grass he stood in looked as if it had died long ago, mostly black and brownish colored vines seemed to be growing around the walls, and even though Razor was nowhere near the architect that Daedalus was, he could definitely tell that the stone and bricks that made up the wall were definitely coming apart, as it was worn in all kinds of places and there were holes and rubble everywhere. Whatever happened here, somepony, or some thing, obviously did a number on this place. Also the roof of the castle was missing, which allowed Razor to see the sky. It was definitely night time, as he could see the stars, though he couldn’t see the moon, or the sun for that matter. All that was above him was an endless sea of stars, which wouldn’t have been that much of an issue except for that fact that there wasn’t a motherbucking moon. Also, while there was no sun, there seemed to be a bit of light radiating from what Razor could only guess was the sky itself. The light seemed to give off a sort of purplish tint to it, unlike the yellow or orange tint of the actual sun that Celestia rose. “What did that Griffin wench put in my drink?” Another voice suddenly asked out of nowhere. It sounded western minotos. The moment that voice hit Razor’s ears, he looked to his left to see a large minotaur staring up at the sky as well. He was dark blue with long red hair. He wore a black jacket and held a wooden club in his right hand. He didn’t seem to notice Razor there next to him. He seemed more focused on everything else that was around him. *Seth* I open my eyes to see a buffalo staring at moonless night sky. He was larger than any pony I had ever seen. He might have even given Big Macintosh a run for his bits. He also had what I could only guess were red paint stripes that ran down his eyes and wore a bandanna with a feather in it on top of his head.. I look around and see ponies, other creatures and what appeared to be an orange mare. ‘Wait is that who I think that is?’ *Razor* After staring at him for a moment, Razor drew his attention back to the courtyard they were standing in. There were many more ponies of all races and creeds here than just Razor. As he looked around, he saw all kinds of ponies, a red unicorn with a tornado for a cutie mark, a tan pegasus, a few earth ponies, and one black unicorn with a purple mane and red eyes. There weren’t just ponies in the courtyard though. Other than the minotaur, Razor saw a griffon, a buffalo, a changeling, and what he could only guess was a gargoyle. In total, there must have been about thirty different creatures here, ponies and all. He thought that was it, but right as Razor turned his head to look right, he came face to face with a large, black dragon, which looked at him right in his eyes. While not a fully grown dragon, it was still huge, about the size of Razor’s house. It’s scales were a dark, jet black, and were very sharp, almost spiked, and his wings, though folded against his sides, were massive and had obvious Spikes on them. Razor did his best not to move or show any sign of fear as he looked into the dragon’s large, blue eyes. The thing was less than an inch away from his face, it could have swallowed him whole if it wanted to. Still, Razor didn’t show any sign of fear. After a moment of staring, the dragon took his gaze away from Razor and lifted his head up to look at the sky. Razor, for the most part, even though he felt an incredible sense of relief in the fact that a dragon that could have easily swallowed him whole was no longer interested in him, was not sure what to think of the situation. Less than a moment ago, he was walking out of his house to go to work, and the next, he was here. Wherever here was. “What the buck is going on?” One of the other ponies asked. “Where are we?” Another pony asked almost immediately after the first one did. “Gem? Gem, where are you!?” Another one started shouting as he began frantically searching through the crowd. It was at that point that every pony (and all other creatures) started talking to each other and asking all kinds of obvious, as well as not so obvious, questions. “How did we get here!?” Another one asked. “Where’d the clouds go?” “I can swear I was at Rarity’s a second ago.” “GEM, WHERE ARE YOU!!!???” Razor remained silent, as did the large dragon that stood next to him. He had at least fifty questions he wanted to ask as well, but something told him he wouldn’t get any answers. “Can we all please calm the buck down!!!” Another pony, this one a mare, shouted loud enough for all of them to hear. The instant those words left her mouth, everypony’s attention was on her. She was a brown earth pony that wore (at least in Razor’s eyes) an incredibly silly hat. It was some kind of incredibly tall, purple fedora with bunny ears coming out of the sides. Yes, it had bunny ears in it. Her cutie mark was the same as her hat was, for some reason. “Okay,” the silly hat pony said once everything had calmed down. “Obviously none of us have any bucking idea where we are right now. So lets focus on what we do know.” She scanned through the crowd for a moment after she said that. “You there!” she said as she pointed her hoof at a random pony. “What were you doing before you got here?” “Me?” The pony said as he pointed a hoof to himself. “I was in Ponyville. I was just heading to the library to see Twilight.” The moment those words hit Razor’s ears, he could swear he felt his blood boil a little. Small flames began to form around his horn as he had to fight the urge to burn him alive. He shut them out quickly though. He wasn’t an idiot, and he knew that now was neither the time nor the place for this. “Okay,” the silly hat pony said as she looked around through the crowd once more. “You,” she said as she pointed to a pegasus. “What were you doing?” “I was in Cloudsdale,” the pegasus replied. “I’m on the weather team there. I was right in the middle of clearing up some stray clouds when I got here.” “Don’t look at me,” the one griffon there then said. He sounded kind of like Soarin from the Wonderbolts. “I was at my apartment in the Griffon Kingdom.” “All right,” the silly had pony said as she brought a hoof to her chin. “So we all come from different walks of life.” “Speak for yourself,” Another, much larger pony said as he walked up to her. “And what’s the deal with that hat?” Razor had to admit he had been wondering the same thing, but didn’t want to ask. “My hat?” the silly hat pony replied as she touched it with a hoof. “It’s just my hat. Every pony wears a hat.” “No they don’t,” the pony in front of her responded. “None of my friends wear hats.” The silly hat pony was about to respond, but then she looked around through the crowd. She was the only one there wearing a hat. At that, the silly hat pony’s eyes got so wide that they threatened to burst out of her skull. “That’s impossible,” she said to himself as she backed away slightly. She would have gone on, but the sound of a deep laughter cut her off. At the sound of that, every pony, griffon, minotaur, buffalo, and dragon’s attention turned back towards the sky. It was then that Razor saw it. He hadn’t seen it before since he had only looked directly up at the sky, but in front of them all was a massive, and incredibly tall, black tower. It was so tall that none of them could see the top. It seemed to be made out of the same kind of stone that the palaces of Canterlot were, yet its design was more gothic and much more horrifying than anything in Canterlot. It didn’t have any windows, sculptures, or anything that stood out from it. It was just one long tower that went straight up. The laughter that they all heard seemed to radiate from it as if it was coming from the tower itself, yet at the same time was all around them. “Greetings to you all!” A baritone voice said to all of them. “Who are you!?” One pony asked the speaker loud enough for all to hear it, and just loud enough for some of the others to start murmuring. “I am the Stallion in the High Tower, Lord and Master of the Greater Palace, and the One Devoid of Time itself!” The voice responded with much more ferocity than before. “From all across the multiverse I have selected you ponies, griffins, and other assorted creatures for a single purpose to be brought before me.” “Oh yeah, and what purpose would that be?” The minotaur said as he stepped forward and spit onto the floor before resuming his gaze upwards to the tower. “To fight for your universe in a simple contest of strength to prove to me and the others here that you are the best of the stock that your particular corner of the multiverse has to offer!” The Stallion in the High Tower boomed with a certain regal flare in his baritone voice as the ground beneath all of their feet began to shake. The castle that surrounded them all then started to come apart, as parts of it came off and floated up into the sky. It took only a few moments before the entire castle that surrounded them was gone, and with it gone, they all could see more clearly where they were. They all looked around to see the ruins of a destroyed city. It was a city that at least the ponies knew all too well, for they had all seen it before. They all stood in the ruins of what was unmistakably Canterlot. “The rules are as follows: fight each other to the DEATH until one pony is left standing. That pony shall be allowed to walk freely from within the Greater Palace of the Stallion in the High Tower with a prize.” The bait had been set, a simple catch to the whole affair that piqued the interest of all those standing in attendance. The mention of a single prize to be awarded following a series of gore filled matches until one stallion or mare stood victorious above all others even enticed Razor at some level. “The prize is that you and your universe survive.” The moment those words were said, Razor felt both his jaw drop and eyes go wide. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard, and neither could any of the others there too as they all held similar expressions on their faces. “You see,” The Stallion in the High Tower continued. “In this game, if you fall you die here, but at the same time, the High Tower will target your universe for elimination. At the exact moment you utter your very last breath, your universe shall join you in the great here to the afterlife of nothingness that awaits you. In truth, your life not only hangs in the balance, but the thousands upon millions of lives of the other citizens of your universes as well.” “This is bullshit!” The silly hat pony screamed as she stepped forward. “What if we don’t fight!? If we don’t fight, then no one has to die!” The moment the last word left her mouth, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck her. Everyone, including Razor, jumped back a bit as the silly hat pony was turned to ashes. When the lightning cleared, nothing remained of her, even his hat was gone. All that was left, was a little pile of black ash on the ground where he once stood. Razor, all the other ponies, the minotaur, the griffon, the buffalo, and even the dragon all just stared at the pile of ash where the silly hat pony once stood with their mouths agape. None of them wanted to or could believe what they had just seen. This pony, who they barely knew, was vaporized in an instant. Not only that, but she died because she refused to fight. After several moments, the booming laughter of the Stallion in the High Tower returned. “So much for the Universe of Silly Hats.” The Stallion in the High Tower said. All Razor could do was look up at the tower and grit his teeth. “Do not take me to be some great fool that lives as the gods do, I have played this game a thousand times over, and a thousand times over I have seen the same as her kind refusing to fight and all have ended the same way. They bring nothing to us and therefore they shall leaving nothing behind to remind us of a ill-begotten legacy of forsaken talent and the undiscovered penchant for murderous survival.” Silence reigned for several moments as every single one of the ponies and creatures there all looked at each other. Every one of them held looks of either worry, confusion, or disbelief. Razor... The only thing that Razor felt was anger. An anger that surged throughout his body, but before he could solidify it within himself, the Stallion in the High Tower spoke once again. “You all have seven days to kill, maim, crush, destroy, mutilate and destroy your enemies. Otherwise you will meet the same fate as those motherbucking insolate pussies that dare to try and plead their way out!” *Seth* ‘Is this true?’ I asked myself, ‘If I die here all the ponies I care about will die with me? My friends, my sister, my wife. No, I can’t let that happen. If I have to fight my way through all of these ponies to keep them safe I will.’ *Razor* Silence fell over the crowd once again as each creature just stared with looks of worry, confusion, and eagerness to begin while they examined each of their new found opponents. Razor didn’t bother to look at his newfound opponents, but rather stared at the tower, long after the Stallion in the High Tower ceased his speech with only one look cemented upon his furrowed brow: rage in its purest and unadulterated form. He wasn’t sure at all why he felt the way he did. He barely knew that mare, but at the same time. He couldn’t let it go. “Good luck everyone!” The Stallion in the High Tower said to them all. “And may the best one amongst you win!” As if one cue, the moment he spoke the last word, purple auras formed around all of them, which soon encased them all in orbs. Suddenly, there was another flash of white light.