I was calmly sharpening my blades, my thoughts running at a million miles a second as I came up with a slew of games to play with the stupid ponies. It was a little... depressing really. The ponies always easy to scare, so much as a scratch on their cutie-mark and they'll faint on the spot. "I need better toys. Maybe I should take up doll making as a hobby?"
My thoughts came to a stop though as the fire picked up, a voice echoing around the room.
"To those of sound mind, sound heart. To they that would stand against evil, in the face of Armageddon. To the warriors and heroes, both celebrated and unsung. To my fellow Displaced, I call on you. I am Auric Fulcrum, Knight of the Eclipse, wielder of Alchemy's might. All I hold dear is being threatened by another Displaced. I know not why he seeks to fight me, but as I am, I cannot fight him and win. I require allies while I repair my self. I call on you to aid me, and promise you this: should the side of Light prevail, then I will grant they that aid me whatever boons I can as rewards, within reason. I hope that is not the only reason you choose to fight for me, but in my experience, you motivate more people with a pile of treasure and a kind plea than a kind plea alone."
Well that was surprising, and it sounded like such an easy target no less. Still, even if I brutalised the ones he 'holds dear' in front of him I suspect he would only go into depression or get angry. His voice held a slight tint of grief to it after all. Shortly after that another voice came from the fire.
"Friends, villains, countrymen. Lend me your ears. I, Makuta Teridax, have a dream. A dream that, no matter what interference, will become reality. I call to you, those who want to dominate, to rule the world with an iron fist, I call you. I am Makuta Teridax, the Void, the Shadow of Evil, the Corruptor, he who is Anger and Hatred. And if you want to win... to dominate everything...then stand by my side, and I guarantee you... I cannot say, for I believe that my enemies may be eavesdropping on this, just as I did his... but regardless, come talk to me and I shall let you know. But the information I shall give you will NOT be spoken of. Or, if you want more... immediate rewards, I can grant those too. After all, power always comes with a price."
Villains? Well I guess I could be called that now. Martin Luther King rip-off? Ha ha. Dominate? I always do, don't much care for ruling though. At least he's smart about keeping information hidden. Wait, was that a hint of lust when he was talking about his enemy? Ew dude. He sounded regal, he had goals and he seemed to care more about the end result rather than the means. I think I'll have a chat with him. Despite the lust thing.
My near-constant smile grew as I stood, picking my hat up from the table and throwing two of my old gloves inside before putting it on, "Just in case." They had no claws though, so I only brought them in case my current gloves burned off or something, which was impossible, but it doesn't hurt to be safe. I looked towards the fire again, holding up a clawed hand to it as it slowly turned from red to blue. I'd reasoned that my 'dream flames' would be able to send 'living' tissue through other dimensions where my green ones would send dead.
I thought on how I was going to get a good bearing, lest I end up in an empty void. 'I, Makuta Teridax.' Oh, of course, how silly of me. He was the bionicle. I focused on the stone sitting with the other inter-dimensional trinkets I had. The flame rippled slightly before giving me a clear view beyond it. "Well hello tall, dark and evil-looking." I reached through the flame with my bladed hand and grabbed onto the wall beside it before stepping through, my grin wide as I thought on what was to come from the thing before me.
Yep, that is definitely a bionicle, he looked down at me. “Freddy Kreuger. What brings me the pleasure? As I do not need to sleep, this is hardly a dream. May I presume that you are like me, a man displaced from Earth and granted the form and powers of the greatest nightmare who ever lived?”
He was way too polite, but the compliments were nice. I was expecting tea and crumpets to be served at this point. “Ugh, you sound so polite, how sickening. Yes I am one of these…. what the fuck did you call it?”
If he was off-put by my language, he didn't show it. Or any sign of movement for that matter. “Displaced. We who have been torn from our homes by outrageous misfortune.”
I lifted the skin above my eye, god I missed having eyebrows. Why was he talking like we were on the battlefront already and he was trying to get the troops motivated? “Do you always talk as though you’re giving a speech?”
He leant down towards me, woo he is a big one! “Yes. Yes I do. If you have a problem with that…” At least he was honest. He drew back up to his full height. Correction: a VERY big one. “Then I won’t point you in the direction of a juicy target.” I was expecting a threat, what a let down.
That got my attention. I held back more smiling at the fear of tearing open my cheeks, didn't want to ruin his floor after all. I stroked my blades along my chin as I made the obvious choice. “What a hard choice, help the guy who will most likely let me have my fun, or the guy more likely to stop me due to…” I groaned “morals…”
If he was smiling I couldn't tell, for some reason it felt like that though. “Yes, morals. I don’t have those. In fact… I’d say that you know which target I consider… juicy enough for you to go at him. But one thing, Freddy.”
He leant forwards as darkness surrounded us from out of nowhere. “Don’t kill Auric in his sleep. Let him suffer. Maybe give him a scar. But I will be the one to kill Auric. Don’t forget that.” He makes it sound like I'm some sort of ninja killing people in their sleep.
I chuckled, tipping my hat upward slightly to give me a good view of his whole body. Control freaks like him were usually pretty easy to scare, all you had to do was take their control. But where I would make it so Auric had no control over the safety of his allies, Teridax's fears would be much more.... personal. I was rather upset at not being able to kill off Auric though, but since this thing looked like it could kill me with a thought, I think I should play the good little minion for now. “You two seem so much alike, yet your fears are almost completely different. I’ll be sure to have my fun with him, don’t you worry.”
“No killing or limb removal. That would bring suspicion on you and me. And DON’T reveal your identity. Disguise yourself as me when interacting with him.” He chuckled. “Let him make false assumptions about what I can and cannot do. Now that’s out of the way, I shall tell you my plans… and where you fit in with them.”
In my nightmares I am anything and everything, I wouldn't even have to show any identities if I didn't want to. “You’re such a control freak aren’t you? And if you dreamt, it would make you far too easy….” I laughed as I began walking around the room, inspecting various knick-knacks. Heck, I could just disguise myself as Auric himself if I wanted to. If Teridax thought himself a god of the physical world, I would be the one of the sleeping. “I’ll make sure Auric doesn’t know what hit him… even if he’s the one doing the hitting.”
He nodded. “Good.”
He picked up a block of the same material the rock was made from and started carving it idly as he continued. “My plan has two stages. First stage, I plan to absorb all of the Alicorns’ magic here. That means NO INTERFERENCE. If there is, I will get… angry.”
I nodded, clenching my clawed hand slightly as I waited for him to continue. 'I guess I could leave four out of infinity Alicorns' alone.' He continued. “The second stage relies on Auric making a move against me. He’s powerful, very powerful. With him fighting me and any other allies I make- which will include yourself, naturally- I plan to use the energy from the conflicts to Ascend out of the universe. The best part is, if he doesn’t show I can still Ascend with my own power.” Ascend? So he may actually become a god? Huh.
He turned to me. “Fight for me, and I’ll give you weapons and free reign over the dreams of any… dissidents here. You will strike only the dissidents. Otherwise, you can spread light terror. It will be your personal bolt hole. In exchange, I require you to observe Auric and any allies he gathers, and drive them near crazy. Is that fair?”
'I get almost free reign over another universe AND I get to be a spy with potential knowledge about the entire conflict? Why the hell not? Lets see what else I can get from this though,' my thoughts turning towards the odd material. No matter how much I tried to break off a small piece of it I could never do it, my blades didn't even scratch it, yet he was able to change it so easily. I raised my claw, holding up two of my bladed fingers. “Two conditions. I want blades made of that material.” I pointed towards the block of whatever-it-is he was carving. He had a relatively good drawing of my face on there. Creepy, though I can't say much. His lights squinted, then he nodded.
Apparently that was a yes as he said, “And the other?”
My grin would have been menacing if he weren’t so damn tall. “After this is over, I want to have free reign over any who survived being on the other team, so to speak.”
I think I made him happy with that one, it certainly felt that way. “I agree to those conditions. Now, let’s see about those blades.” He eyed me over as I fought the urge to shiver. He then walked off to his forge, beckoning me to come.
“This is protosteel, one of the finest metals in the multiverse.” He gripped a block of the protosteel and threw it into his forge, watching it melt. He then pulled it out and started hammering it into shape, pulling strips off and shaping them. I was feeling slightly giddy at this point.
“If you want a strong sharp blade that will keep a damn fine edge, you’ve come to the right place.” He started folding the carbon-rich metal, pounding it rapidly to ensure it stayed in shape. When he’d repeated the process several times, he plunged it into water.
“Those blades can cut through solid stone with a little effort, and that edge will stay for a long time.” When they’d cooled sufficiently, he handed them to me with a bit of a flourish and what looked to be pride.
“If you were to meet God, he would be cut.”
My eyes sparkled as I took them, turning them over in my hand. They looked so damn sharp, I could not wait to test them out. After all, I always had trouble cutting those unicorn horns in twain. “Yes, these will be just perfect.” I slowly moved towards the still-flaming wall, eyes glued to the blades. My thoughts turned over the details until I realised something. “There is still one problem though.”
He seemed apprehensive. “If you ask for another condition, no. Otherwise, what is it?”
I chuckled as I turned to him, taking off my hat and tucking the blades away inside. “You misunderstand, I’m talking about a hindrance. You know of Princess Luna’s capabilities correct?” In my dimension she was a valiant foe, for about ten seconds. Where her sister looked to me to help from nightmares, Luna knew I caused them. So she sought out to defeat me, only to become a miserable wreck.
He nodded. “Dreamwalking.” After a slight pause he continued. “I see what you mean. Can you evade her easily?”
“I could break her down into a shrivelling mess, in fact I already have. But yes, I could avoid her. Though it will be difficult if she is not sufficiently distracted.” She always did like making grand entrances into dreams, and she ALWAYS came from the moon if it could be found. In my dimension anyhow.
He pointed at me. “Breaking Princess Luna in Auric’s dimension may draw unwanted attention to you and to me. Though it would help, I dare not. Auric may use that as justification to get the remaining Alicorns on your case. I will create a couple of distractions for her, don’t worry. I can’t dreamwalk, but I can leave suggestions and whispers… enough to draw her away from you.”
I nodded, at least he knew what he was doing. I reached into my hat and pulled out the pair of tattered gloves before throwing them towards him. “Cut off the fingers, burn a piece of those gloves if you believe the coast is clear. I’ll give you my trust on this one.” Trust in something that would kill me without a second thought certainly seemed hard, but I felt as though I had no choice in the matter, plus I'd never worked as part of a group before so maybe it would be fun.
He nodded. “In which case, I will make sure not to betray that trust.” His attention seemed to go elsewhere for a moment before returning to me. “Apologies, Freddy, but another being seeks my attention. I don’t like to cut a meeting short, but I must fly. See yourself out, please. But don’t touch anything.”
I smirked as I placed my hat back onto my head. I'd forgotten to tell him my real name, oh well. “I’ll make sure to remain a secret, even from your own side. So sorry, friendly-fire is on.”
He sighed. “Be safe”
I laughed as the fire picked up before whipping towards me as I looked to Teridax, giving a final bow before being flung back towards it and coming out on the opposite side. To be honest I fully expected him to try some sort of mind reading thing, though I didn't really care. When you spend a majority of your life in the minds of others you learn to protect your own. So if he did, he would either see some of my work, or my play. Can you guess which is more fun to watch?
I clapped my hands together as the flames dissipated, my smile now free to tear my face apart. "This is going to be so much fun!" I hurried over to my workbench, taking my hat off and pulling out the blades. I felt as my mouth slowly healed up and the flesh sewed itself together. I hurried over to another bench, looking over my gloves for the perfect fit.
After a few moments of looking over them though my head snapped to the left, my smile ripping apart my freshly fixed face as I slammed a fist into the wall and drew out a small box from the wreckage. Opening it I found my favourite gloves, two shiny black ones I had made when I met my first dragon. Sure it took a while to get them to soften enough to wear, but it was oh so very worth it now!
I hurriedly moved back over to my bench, laughing loud enough to shake the walls slightly as I grafted the new claws to the old glove. I found myself repeating the same phrase over and over as what was left of my inhibitions fell at the prospect of finally having something good to play with.
"This is going to be so much fun! Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!"