//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: Training Daze // Story: Master of Dimensions, Pleaser of Crowds. // by Dimentio //------------------------------// Chapter 17: Training Daze As Shining Armor and I left the Hospital he quickly turned around and fired a bolt of magic from his horn directly at my face. As suddenly as he had attacked me, I felt a dull pain in my head and a flash of light as a golden barrier The barrier that encased and contained the blast quickly faded and I was greeted by Shining Armor's grinning muzzle. "I'm glad that worked. Granted, from what I had heard your power usually just teleported you or something." "What the hell was that man!...Stallion, whatever the hell. You could have killed me!" I yelled at him as the dull migraine began to fade. "But I didn't, and apart from that great accomplishment, I tested a theory." Shining said, his grin refusing to dim. "And what theory was that? The fact that I have an ultimately useless ability to save myself?" I asked my anger still intact. "Well, I wouldn't say useless...that barrier, it looked oddly similar to our mutual enemy did it not?" Shining said as he began hobbling into town. "I guess so." I said my anger being replaced by a bit of fear that the origin of my 'power' could make the ponies trust me less. "That jester...you know quite a bit about him. Why is that?" Shining pressed slightly suspicious. "Well, back in my world. There's this game..." I began only to be interrupted. "A game? What do you mean by that exactly?" Shining asked, disbelief creeping into his voice. "It...well it's hard to explain, but I guess I'll try. Where I come from, we play games on these...windows I guess you could say, we have controllers and can control a protag-" I tried to find the words only to be cut off once again. "You mean video games?" Shining interrupted, completely shattering my perceptions of pony technology and rendering me speechless for a few moments. After noticing that I had stopped, he turned and he acquired a smug grin. "What? Is that surprising?" "Err...well, seeing all of the trains and everything in the-I mean, around here...maybe a tad." I admitted. "I guess that simplifies things. Dimentio is an antagonist in one of our games, to be honest though, meeting him in person was probably the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced...I still can't believe all of this is real though." I said and we continued our walk. "It must be one hell of an experience, being in a completely unfamiliar land." Shining said, I think I sensed a shred of sympathy in his voice. "That's an understatement." I mumbled. "Well, as much as that sucks. We have more important things to attend to." Shining said. "I think we can find a way to use your power to our advantage." "How?" I asked. "I think we can train you to fight. From what I've heard, you're pretty crummy at it." Shining Armor said as he suddenly stopped. "Thanks, I'm sure with your encouragement, I'll be able to take Dimentio out, no problem at all." I responded and looked around. We had stopped in an area just outside of Ponyville that looked like it had been set up for some kind of boot camp like scenario. "Well, here we are." Shining said, now quite serious. "And this is your way of toughening me up?" I asked sarcastically, already dreading the answer. "Yep, and I asked Princess Celestia to find a few soldiers from the royal guard to help train you and defend the elements."Meet Sergeant Rock Hull and Lieutenant Fireside." He said as a large brown male unicorn and a stout red female pegasus approached and saluted Shining Armor. The brown one's mark displayed a large stone whereas the red had what looked like a blowtorch. "Err, hello?" I said nervously, their stoic faces kind of creeped me out. The pair shot me a glance and their stoic masks gave way to questioning looks at their commander. "This thing here, is John." Shining said simply. "Y'know, being called a thing is a bit rude." I said and turned to greet the two soldiers who had replaced their looks of bored stoicism. Shining quickly hit me where the sun doesn't shine with his crutch sending me to the ground. Out of care for my own dignity, I resigned myself to quiet whimpering instead of cursing and screaming. "You speak when spoken to soldier." He said seriously. "Now, I'm sure the two of you have read the reports. Some crazy being has been terrorizing Equestria...These reports are true, and I've witnessed firsthand that this Dimentio bastard is not a pushover." "You can say that again. I mean, he sure kicked your ass." I said as I struggled to stand only to receive a crutch to the aforementioned place of darkness. "Remember your place in this training exercise Private!" Shining reminded me as he returned to his speech."Now, Dimentio uses some form of magic that I've never seen, heard, or read about before. And as former captain of the guard, I've read up on just about everything that has the potential to threaten this great kingdom...Whatever this guy is..." "Sure, you call him a guy, but me? I'm just a freaking THING." I should have known better by now, but I tend to be a little dense. This time however, I anticipated where the crutch was going to hit and blocked it only to have a second strike crack me in the head. "Damnit all!" I said as I rolled over in pain. "Dimentio defeated both Cadence and I without any help. Whatever kind of magic he uses, it's more powerful than what we can muster. My shields were child's play to him." He said and both soldiers' expressions became shocked, as if Shining's shields were so super....I just got hit in the head, I can use alliteration to express my sarcasm if I want to. "That's impossible though, we measured your shield strength to be able to withstand pressure up to one hundred and thirty thousand PSI at full strength!" Fireside said in disbelief. Her description kind of affirmed in my head that she was some kind of pony engineer or something. "I know, but whatever his magic is...it simply ripped through my shields." Shining said. "Cadence wasn't really able to stand up to him either." His expression became grim. "Where is the princess anyway?" Stone Hull asked as he glanced around. "Captured by the enemy, that's why we need this one." He gestured at me. "Him? What use can he be?" Fireside asked, now intrigued. "He may not look like much, but he uses the same magic Dimentio does....and he knows the enemy better than anybody else." Shining said prodding me with his crutch, I guess it was my cue to finally stand back up. "As pathetic as he looks now, we're going to need him. That's why I had the two of you set this up, we need him in top shape as quickly as possible." "How quick were you thinking?" Stone Hull asked sizing me up with his eyes, he obviously wasn't impressed. "We'll train him in combat over the next two weeks, maybe try to harness his magic after that." Shining said confidently. "That's pretty optimistic, do you really think we can get him ready for combat in only a few weeks?" Fireside asked, now unsure of the former captain's judgement. "That happens to be why I had the Princess retrieve the two of you instead of some drill sergeant used to training ponies for the guard." Shining said, his confident smile not fading. "I know between the three of us, we can have him ready to take on a herd of Minotaurs within the month." "You said something about his magic, exactly how does it work?" Stone Hull asked, still unsure if I had any potential at all. I can't really blame him though, I still wasn't sure how Shining planned to get my magic to be useful for anything but saving my own ass. "Well, how about you hurl a boulder his way, and I'll show you." Shining said, my eyes grew wide as I saw a boulder covered in a brown aura burst from the ground and hurdle towards me at frightening speeds. As if by instinct, I snapped my fingers and a barrier very similar to the one that had blocked Shining's attack surrounded the now halted boulder. A second snap and a trio of explosions turned the boulder into a shower of pebbles as the barrier faded. "Wow...That was awesome." Fireside said as she zoomed to my side, inspecting my hands very carefully. "Somehow, he focused the magic through these, and just...I've never seen anything like it." "What's even better is that I have no fucking idea how I did that." I said still shaking a bit. The dull headache that seemed to be synonymous with my power seemed to affirm how it had happened. "Hmmm, so you're saying it just responds when you're in danger?" Fireside continued, not ceasing her studying of me. "Pretty much, that's why I think this is pointless. I'm sure Discord can handle Dimentio alone." I said. "Well, all distractions aside...let's get started." Shining said ominously. And thus began the first week of hell. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Discord sensed trace of the all too familiar magic within the Everfree forest. He knew that Dimentio was near. "Found you." Dimentio said as he rose from the trees to meet Discord head on. "So, Starswirl...I'd like some of my power back if you'd please." "Never, besides, my name is Discord now." Discord said as he attempted to teleport Dimentio again. "Not so fast. I'm afraid I've recovered quite a bit since our last encounter...enough chatter, if you give me what's rightfully mine...I'll even let you live...for a while anyway. Or of course,you can try to make things difficult and I'll just take it." Dimentio offered generously.