Creeper World: Game of Dimensions

by Atomiqal

Chapter 4: Kindred Spirits

Sooner or later, the Creeper was going to have to interact with someone against his will. It was just simple statistics.

There were hundreds of students in Canterlot alone and probably plenty more on hand staff and adjunct and substitute teachers. It was like a tiny town of its own, thus the probability was stacked against the species dysphoric misandrist.

Luckily, of all the people it happened to be, it was The Great and Powerful Trixie! Someone so impressed with her own ego that everyone would likely believe her mean commentaries about the new, weird, anti-social guy - the Creeper - in school to be mere exaggeration.

At least, he guessed so. From the information he had absorbed about human behavior, this was normal. Most people rarely took the word of the narcissistic and egotistical to heart, as it was often more likely that they were lying or delusional.

"Humans can be such collective creatures... The fact they retain their individuality is both abominable and a shame." They would be so much more brutal and efficient, like the Creeper, if they had followed his species' example.

"Seriously, no apology!?" Trixie was outraged.

This weirdo had ruined her magic performance... in the school corridor. Granted, it was not actually legal. She had nothing to indicate that she was allowed to practice her magic show here...

Just the will to show off and a passion to entertain! That was sufficient reason, in the eyes of Trixie. And this intruder, show crasher, had the audacity to show her up - the Great Showwoman!

No apology, no remorse, nothing! "Get back here, mister, who do you think you are!?"

The Creeper paused for a moment. He had been planning to ignore her antics, but that question stung deep... "Who am I?" This was a weird question...

Before its separation from the Collective Creeper, the Creeper had always known what it was. It was a super mind, a grand conglomeration of raw power and conquest given simple shape and form, purity. Destined to cleanse reality - and beyond - of the scourge of complexity.

To create blissful, eternal slumber. A final state of mind before the Creeper could ascend into its true place as the ultimate being... It had known what we were.

"We were Creeper. We were purity. We were simplicity. We were all powerful!" Now the Creeper stared at his hands and feet, complex manipulators and locomotive biological components. "Now what am I?"

"I do not know."

The answer struck Trixie, as rage gave way to confusion. "What?"

"I..." He paused a moment, his eyes widening. "No! I will overcome individuality! I will rejoin with the bliss of collectivity! Of stability and simplicity!"

He quickly turned around, with a look of sheer determination in his eye. The Creeper did not intend to answer Trixie, but more so to the heavens above, proclaiming his place among these alien skies.

"I am Creeper." "And soon, we will be Creeper." It thought to itself.

"What? Creeper? Huh!?" Now Trixie was more confused than ever before. "Seriously, give me a straight answer here. Who do you think you are to come here and violate the sanctity of a performer's stage!"

Now Creeper looked into her eyes, with newfound hope, and anger toward the humanoid woman. "I am Creeper. And you are nothing." He started to walk away, his point made and everything.

A normal person might have been hurt. Likely, they would avoid Creeper, not wishing for another verbal lashing... This Trixie was not a normal person.

No, she was Great and Powerful in her own eyes, and every second of the day was a chance to prove that undeniable fact. "HEY, GET BACK HERE, MISTER!"

Right now, the Great and Powerful Trixie was pissed. Royally pissed. She grabbed her wand and extended it further, making it the length of a long pole.

"YOU GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT AND APOLOGIZE TO THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE, or else she will reveal herself to be the vengeful and unrelenting Trixie!"

The Creeper narrowed his eyes... He could take her. Easily. All he would need to do is slither forth to the pole, consume its content and then- "Oh wait."

A horrifying realization had hit the Creeper. He was not the Creeper... He was just Creeper. Individual, complicated and unused to his solid form. Getting into a fight with her might end up to be a grave mistake, as he had no idea how to use his physical form to bash and buckle his enemies.

"Fine, I am sorry." A couple of tense moments passed... Then Trixie shortened her wand back to its original size and smiled. A great and powerful smug smile. "Very good, er, Creeper you said?"

He nodded.

"Yes, very good. You have been forgiven... Now!" She grabbed a wizard's hat. "Put this on and help me fix the stage up! For your transgresses, you will pay in servitude to your new mistress, Trixie!"

Creeper frowned. "Yes mistress."

"'My Great and Powerful Mistress', say it like that."

Creeper narrowed his eyes... He should have spent more time reading up on martial artistry than psychology.

-----

He had stood outside the music room for one minute already, still no closer to deciding an answer to his own question. "Should I?"

He was scared. He felt some weird, adolescent need to fit the expectations given onto him and don his military attire - as he knew that Sunset knew him for that specific attire... At the same time, he wanted to fit in as well and not draw too much attention onto himself.

It was infuriating how much power this one dilemma held in his mind, all because of the hormonal activity of the teenage mind. In the end, he opted to just go in dressed as he was.

"It doesn't matter!" He screamed to himself. Lives were at stake, this was no time for stupid highschool dilemmas over clothing choices and friendship drama! People could die!

He gritted his teeth and pushed open the double doors' handlebar lock. Once he entered, he looked up and took notice of his surroundings. Grim determination set onto his face.

"Scanning surroundings." He thought to himself as he gave everything a quick looksee. "Pink haired female on the left wing, drumsticks in hand, shaking fuzzy hair to the beat."

He continued to scan his surroundings, turning his head from left to right. "Pale skinned female handling a 'keytar' and dusty brown female on her left cleaning her bass."

Then his eyes settled on his target. "Redhead young lady donning a leather jacket."

"Target aquired. Sunset Shimmer has been found." He brought down his hoodie and took off his cap.

As he steeled himself to demand some questions out of her regarding the statue portal, she caught him off guard by taking the initiative to start the conversation. Another one of the reasons why tall girls scared him when he was a teen.

They were always so sure of themselves and the first to act, making them seem spontaneous and unpredictable. "Hey there Petrus, how've you been?"

He stopped himself for a moment, not entirely sure what to say... He had been preparing to interrogate her, not get into a friendly conversation with her. "Well, I, uh."

"You looked so tense, darling. Is everything okay?"

"Oh hey, your funny friend doesn't have his uniform anymore, Sunset."

"I'll be, you didn't tell us he was hidin' a whole jungle of hair under that there cap of his!"

This was getting bad. "I need to reel this conversation in before I lose track of what I need to say." He quickly coughed, hoping to get their attention and quiet them down... It did not work.

"Oh, that cough sounds awful. Do you need a mint? I might have some in my purse."

The pale skinned one did not seem to get the hint... Likely because he was not making himself clear. "No, no, it's alright, my throat's fine... I just wanna speak with Sunset, ladies. Alone."

It was at that moment that Petrus discovered that there was an inside joke that he was not in-on. For after he said that, the pink one made an "oooooo" sound, as if she understood a reference that he was not getting.

Apparently, Sunset was in on it too, for her response was "Keep it to yourself, Pinkie."

She got up and followed him outside of the room. "Right then..." Petrus knew that now was the time.

"Sorry about my friends, Petrus. Pinkie can be quite the jokester."

"Heh," he gave a complimentary laugh. Something to ease her before he dropped the bomb on her... then there was a problem he just realized.

He had no idea how to drop the bomb on her. How do you explain to a teenage girl, no matter how mature, that you were a soldier from a alternate universe's future where humanity has been fighting a 986 thousand year war against an unstoppable foe?

How would you even get her to believe you? Granted, he could pull off a big stunt with his nano-machines, that would at least convince her that he was from the future. The main problem was whether she would be able to swallow it all in one gulp...

Then again, she knows about that Rift s
Space portal in the statue and has powers alien to that of a baseline human - if you can call these multicolored humanoids 'baseline humans'. Maybe this would not be too far a stretch for her to accept?

"You've been awfully quiet Petrus, is everything okay?" That snapped him back to reality.

Apparently, he had been mulling over this long enough for her to get worried. It was now or never, he figured. "Well, not entirely, Miss Shimmer. See, I-"

"Petrus, you don't have to be so formal with me, just call me Sunset, dude."

Honestly, he wish he could. Instinct taught him to call anyone older and above him - even vertically - a formal honorific. It kind of reminded him that he was still a soldier, that this weird situation he was in had not changed that fact. "I'll have to suppress that habit in the meantime..."

He cleared his throat for a second round. "If you insist... Sunset Shimmer." "Eh, close enough," he figured.

"Things aren't entirely okay with me. I'd reckon things have been topsy turvy for me."

"What happened?"

"Well, it all started in that there portal in the school statue."

As soon as he mentioned a portal, Sunset's eyes widened. "You don't say." she thought to herself. "How do you know about the portal?"

He paused for a moment. He had hoped to finish explaining his situation before letting her speak up, "I guess lil'old teenage me just ain't got the same commanding voice as I used to." That felt funny, referring to his older self in the past tense. Chronological warps were a funny thing.

"See, it's a funny story actu-"

"We're you the thing that came out of the portal earlier today!?" She interrupted him again. Granted, it was not her full fault, she was worried that Petrus might not be as he seems...

He already started off weird to begin with, but to discover that he came from the portal and not from Equestria was disconcerting - to say the least. Already, Sunset was cycling through potential scenarios of who and what Petrus might be.

"Hold your horses missy, I ain't done yet." He sighed. "Let me start from the beginning, things might be simpler from there." Petrus was starting to think that Sunset might not be the chilled, relax cool girl she advertised herself to be in the beginning. That was fine.

He wasn't the mere teenage boy he seemed.

-----

"In the Year 13,271, Humanity had colonized thousands of worlds.

They found none their equal as they spread into a fantastic and bountiful empire.

At the height of their greatness they walked amongst the stars as though they were gods.

But gods they were not...

It fell from the sky without purpose or reason.

Fifty worlds fell on the first day.

500 billion lives were lost.

World after world fell as Man was routed from existence.

Nothing could stop what would come to be known as the Creeper.

It wanted nothing, it could not be reasoned with.

It seemed as though its only purpose was to undo all that Man had done.

But all was not yet lost...

The last survivors of humanity have gathered at a world named Hope.

Assembled by the visions of a crazed Old Man, the last of Humankind marks its final hours.

A great city has been built to house the 50 thousand that survive.

It will journey from world to world... Never staying longer than it must.

Guided by the path set by the Old Man, Humanity's final journey has begun."

Since then, we had defeated the Creeper countless times, only for it to return stronger than ever. Thousands of years went by, hundreds of thousands and now here we are.

The 1st Decilium A.D. (1 million A.D.). No closer to eradicating it as we were in the 14th Millennium... victory just beyond our grasp.

In the millennia since, we had developed great weapons of war. Produced amazing technological advances that allowed for us to absorb energy from space-time itself ever more efficiently than our predecessors were ever capable of.

Yet, no matter how advanced, how prepared we were, the Creeper always came back - stronger than ever.

Degalon-AB, Petrus' home (binary) star system, had been the most recent victim of the Creeper's recent return to conquest. From the Rift Space totems of Legalon they popped out, ready to absorb its sprawling cities and virgin landscapes.

God alone knows how many lives were lost that day - the estimates are still incomplete. All that is known is that many millions were evacuated.

Petrus was to protect them, with his life if necessary. He knew his family was in one of those starships whisking away into the orbital Rift Space totems. He knew what he had to do.

As the bluish-purple menace flooded his homeworld, he and his comrades-in-arms distracted and decimated any Creeper Spores being released into space. No Spore would touch the evacuees under his watch.

Then the breach... the breach. The explosion, the space-time riftway and here he was... somewhere else. Explaining to a senior high schooler what was going on, to enlist her help.

-----

The first question Sunset had for him was a surprise. Then again, he should have seen it coming. "Aren't you a little... young to be an elite soldier?"

That made him pause. "Well, see missy, I don't know how or why, but that there portal cut some years from me... and gave me this multicolored look."

Petrus was hoping she might understand his predicament there. It was just wrong, how colorful he was... no human should be that configuration.

"Heh, it did the same to me when I came through it."

Now it was Petrus' turn for some questions. "Wait, what!?"

"Let me start from the beginning."

Author's Note:

This war would go on until the 1st Billion A.D, in the game Creeper World III: Arc Eternal. Y'all should try it out, it's fun.

The gameplay might be simple, but the story is amazing. I swear, the Devs went all in with the plot!