Dimension Jumper

by redtau


Strangers and Dogs

Princess Celestia obviously had it in for me. She'd had me imprisoned, put through a silly trial, banished to this Castle, and finally bound me here so I couldn't leave. Now she was using her ultimate weapon. Now she had done the unthinkable.

She had raised the sun.

It wasn't the normal sun. It was some kind of death ray sun. Even through my narrowest squint the deadly rays bore into my brain. I could feel them cooking my eyeballs and squeezing my sinuses. Even with my eyes shut tight that hateful ball of flame left a burning after image of pain in my vision.

I could remember, faintly, the sun raising and setting a number of times since all the ponies had stopped pretending to care and run off, but I wasn't sure of how many. I'd been too busy at the time trying to find more ancient alcohol. It numbed the pain and shut nightmare up.

My mouth tasted funky. Dry and sticky with a bitter-sweet taste. Cold stone grated across my sore back as I shifted, unable to get comfortable enough to return to blissful unconsciousness.

Something mercifully interceded itself between Celestia's vengeance and myself, and with a small effort I was able to squint up at it. It was hard to make out any details with it being so highly contrasted against the sun, but it looked like it had a lot of sharp teeth.

Great, D's come to kill me There was hope in that thought, hope in the end of my current suffering.

Instead, it's head swung up and it did something horrible.

It yelled.

“Hey! I think it's still alive!”

By all the gods and goddesses that had hurt. The harsh sound of his voice had reverberated through my skull, amplifying my headache in every way. I groaned and rolled over, away from both light and sound.

“I think it's hurt! Come quickly!”

More yelling. What could I do to stop the yelling? I could yell back, but my throat was still very dry. Maybe there was more wine around.

I felt claws grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled upright, and I fought off a huge wave of nausea at the motion. There was motion around me, but my head hurt too much register from what.

"This is the creature the zebra told us about?" one asked. "It looks like a deformed mutt and it smells like a trash pile."

"Look at all the work that has been done to the castle! Something must have done it." another said.

"It's a drunken mess." A third added. About a dozen more started talking about me like I wasn't there. Each new voice caused the others to be raised, and all just ratcheted up my pain.

"Quiet." I said, wincing at my own voice. My words went unheeded.

"It's a mess."

"The other ponies must have just left it behind."

"BE QUIET!" I yelled, and a wave of shadow washed over the canid's. Dark tendrils stretched out from my hair and wrapped around each creatures mouth, bringing blessed silence.

"Thank you." I whispered. The dark tendrils faded away as the headache spiked again.

"Our apologies," The largest canid said, "What can we do to make up for it?" All of them were looking at me nervously now.

"Head hurts," I rasped. A moment later a bowl of water was pressed into my hand and I gulped it down almost without thinking. A second bowl appeared, and someone emptied a small sachet of dark green powder into it.

It could be anything, I thought, my head still pounding. Even poison.

I downed the entire bowl as fast as I could.

Fortunately or unfortunately it seemed the powder was more medicine. A few moments and my head began to clear, the pain receding to manageable levels.

I looked around the courtyard and took in my surroundings. It was obvious from the half dozen bottles they around me that I had passed out the night before. My suffering was no more than a well-deserved hangover.

New to the courtyard were a dozen and a half canids, each dressed in light armor and traveling cloaks. I grinned at the closest one who had been handing me more bowls of water.

"Welcome to my Castle," I said, waving my hand around. "Let me give you the two bit tour."


An hour later I sat to my throne, washed, freshly dressed and feeling a lot more human. My guests sat at a low table they had dragged in, eating a meager breakfast from my stores.

"So, what brings the Ruby Rovers to my own personal Castle so deep in the Everfree forest?"

Red, the leader who had given me water back in the courtyard, stood and bowed before speaking. "Well your highness-"

"your highness?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Aren't you royalty? You live in a Castle, and none challenge your domain here."

Not since last month anyway.

"Go on." I said waving a hand.

"We had heard you were quite skilled at the lost art of sigils."

"Sigils?"

"Drawn spell forms? Magic circles?"

"Oh, yes I have some experience with them. What of it?"

"My great great grandfather was working on a circle of immense power and utility. He was able to make it work but only for short periods of time. It was my hope that you might be able to correct this problem."

"You want me to troubleshoot your spell form? I don't know if I'm that talented."

"All I'm asking is that you look at it. The art of drawing and understanding spell forms has been mostly lost to my people over the centuries."

"Alright, I'll take a look. Why was the art lost if it was so useful?"

"Because it's not useful," another of the Rovers piped up. "It's wasteful!"

"Wasteful?" I asked, "How so?"

"We don't have the innate magic of the ponies, so we must expend the energy stored in gems." Red said, glaring at her subordinate. "This greatly reduces their value."

"The spell must be quite powerful for you to risk such a loss for it's activation. Aside from a bit of knowledge, what would I get out of this bargain?"

"My pack is one of the few brave enough or skilled enough to dig to your Castle. We could provide you with new supplies and access to the world beyond the forest." Red said, bowing low.

"I'm bound to this castle by a powerful spell, and cannot leave by any path until it is lifted. Nonetheless I need a good challenge to distract me, and more supplies would be appreciated. Let's go to the courtyard and see what you have so far."


"Okay, let me run through this and see if I understand what it is supposed to do."

A trio of Ruby Rover scholars nodded as I paced around the massive complex circle drawn in the sand. It was actually series a of concentric circles, each linked to and interacting with the next one going inward.

"The center ring is a focusing array. It concentrates energy stored in the second circle into a single point." The three nodded again as I continued pacing. "The next circle out seems to be a filter of some kind. I can see markings for specific kinds of energy. That means the next to last circle has to be gathering energy somehow, though I don't really understand it." I scratched my head and knelt down looking at the last circle with curiosity. "This last one I have never seen before. What does it do?"

There was a shocked gasp from the scholars and I looked up at them curiously.

"Don't you know the repeater glyph?" The first scholar asked. "It is so much simpler in the central circles that you diagnosed with ease."

"My references have been very limited, and fairly advanced. Maybe they were missing some of the lesser circles."

"And you have had to redraw every circle you ever made?" The second scholar asked.

"Of course," I said, "unless I leave the circle unfinished. That's how it's done in all of the texts."

"Of course, that explains it." The last scholar said. "If she only knows from texts and unicorns, she would see no reason to preserve a working circle."

"Okay so then this keeps the circle from being erased?"

"No, once a circle is empowered it will naturally fade. The repeater redraws the circle as it fades."

"Gotcha. So the circle gathers power, filters power, focuses it, and... Then what? Where's the power coming from? Where does it go?"

"It comes from everywhere." The first scholar said waving his arms. "It's gathered from the area around the circle. As for where it goes." He reached into a bag and pulled out a single small gem. It was dull, holding almost no spark of magic energy.

I turned to the chief. "Your great-great-grandfather designed this? Was it always so large?"

"No," she said with a sigh "the first one he made was no bigger than a claw- span. You could only charge the smallest gems, and only a little bit."

I paced back and forth around the circle looking at it carefully. "Is this one active?"

"It should be." Red said, huffing and crossing her arms. "All it needs now is a gem."

"Well then," I said, turning to the third scholar "Add the gem and let's see what happens."

She nodded and, stepping carefully, place the gem on the ground center of the circle. He stepped back out and sat down to watch.

"How long does it usually take?"

"Not long at all. The gem should start glowing almost as soon as it's put down."

I sat and watched for a minute or two, but nothing happened.

Maybe it has to do with the way circles are drawn? Or the way the gem interacts with the circle?

I cocked my head to one side and glared at the circle. "It works on the smaller version, so something has to change with regard to size."

After thinking a moment longer I got up and stepped carefully to the center. I picked up the gem and very slowly raised it straight up about the circle. At about 3 feet, and just as I was losing hope, the gem began to glow.

I looked around grinning as all four canids stared at me with stunned expressions.

"What did you? How did you? Why is it?"

"It seems the center of focus for the circle is at a distance above the circle equal to its radius." I said with a grin.


They left a few hours later, leaving me with the current circle to study and over two dozen gems to work with. As a research project I knew there would be a lot of fine-tuning to do, but for now I have a functional way to recharge I gems. I even made a stand of a training spear Lance left behind to hold the gem at the right height.

It was an hour or two after they left that I began to realize how much I had enjoyed their company. Now I was alone again, and the stark contrast made me feel like crying. I felt a drop, and looked up at the darkening sky. Letting out a heavy sigh, I turned to go inside as rain started to fall.


Scorpio pushed his way deeper into the woods, squinting against the driving rain. His right wing hurt bad, a mistake from trying to fly in the storm. The Everfree was no less dangerous for the rain and wind, and he needed shelter. A cave would do, or at least a couple of fallen trees in the right places.

Lightning flashed, and he blinked. It must have been a trick of the light, there was no way there was a castle out here. He heard as much as felt the thunder, and decided that one illusion was a good as any. A last burst of strength carried him over the wall, and he hammered at the doors as he felt his exhaustion overtake him. As darkness crept up, he felt the doors shift.


Scorpio woke still in darkness, but this was a much warmer and softer darkness. He felt something constricting his head and wing, and but altogether better.

"You're awake." A soft voice said nearby. He turned to it, even though he could not see in the darkness.

"Who's there? Why can't I see?"

"You are blindfolded. I'm sorry, but it was a precaution."

"A precaution?"

"Do you know where you are?"

"Some manor house or fort on the edge of the Everfree."

There was an almost light hearted laugh. "No. You are at the Castle of the Pony Sisters, near the heart of the forest." He felt a shifting on the bed, and the voice whispered from closer. "And only monsters live in the forest. Are you sure you want to take that blindfold off?"

"I think I'd rather know the creature that is going to eat me."

"Really? What if you upset me with your reaction? Wouldn't you rather take my hospitality and get better before tempting fate?"

He pondered that for a moment. "How bad could it be?"

"I might be like a cockatrice. To look at me would turn you to stone."

"You don't sound like a cockatrice."

"I could be worse."

"I'll risk it." He said, reaching up and pulling off the blindfold. The deformed canid that stood before him didn't seem nearly as threatening as it had made itself to be. "You don't look like much."

"Oh, what would make me worse? If i had long teeth and claws? Scales and slime?"

"Why? Planing a Nightmare Night costume?"

"Not yet, but I really should dress up on my night."

Pio scoffed. "You mean Princess Luna's night."

"But it was named after Nightmare Moon." the creature said, it's eyes starting to glow with a strange turquoise light. "She's only half of that monster."

"And, um, what are you then?" He felt and heard a tremble of fear in his voice as a third and fourth eye opened in the creatures hair.

"The other half," It said with a wicked grin. "Don't you wish you'd left that blindfold on.

Pio nodded.

The horror stood before him a moment longer, then the extra eyes vanished and the glow faded. "Good. You have a name?"

"Scorpio. Pio to my friends."

"I can call you Pio then?"

"We're friends?"

"You'd prefer we were enemies?" She asked with a smile. Pio shuddered.

"No."

"I'll call you Pio then. Alright Pio, I am Sarah. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Pio nodded.

"There isn't anypony else at the castle right now, but I'm expecting a visit from some canids in a few days. I've got a little research project that is taking most of my time, but I'll do what I can to look after you. Is there anything you want or need?"

"Um, I-" Pio's train of thought was interrupted by a loud growl from his stomache. " I'm kind of hungry."

"What would you like? Vegetable soup? Small salad? Bread? Fish?"

"Um, just some soup for now."

"Is that all?" there was an odd tone in the creatures voice.

"That's all."

"OK, I'll go make some. Don't move around too much, you don't want to agitate that wound."

The creature stepped gracefuly out of the door, and Pio sat trying to work out the strange thoughts and feelings it had stirred in him. Was it safe? Was it crazy? Did it know more than it was letting on? and finally Was there any chance he could just put the blindfold back on and pretend this conversation never happened?