Shackles

by An hero

Repent

Shackles

Prologue

Listen to this

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The diamond dog limped out of the cave, attempting to sprint to outrun the creature chasing him. The tables had been turned, and the creature had finally broken free of its shackles. Thunder clapped, and the screams from the cave only served to further motivate him to run as far as he could. The diamond dog collapsed at the sight of flickering lights. Seeing this as his only hope for survival, the diamond dog tried yelling, howling, and yelping for help. When he found that the only noise that emanated from his throat was a dry rasp, he began crawling towards the light.

He crawled for hours, never stopping to rest. The adrenaline that coursed through his veins prevented him from fainting. , he finally reached the entrance of the cave and threw himself in with the last of his strength. The last thing he saw before slipping into unconsciousness was the blurred figures of the pack making their way towards him.

The diamond dog awoke to the sound of snoring—loud snores, heavy breathing and even nose whistling. He looked around to get a bearing on his location and saw with relief that he was surrounded by familiar expansive caverns that reached tremendous heights; where one ended, another took its place, the entrances stacked on top of one another. To his right, a crackling campfire illuminated the caverns, giving them an eerie glow and casting distorted shadows across the stone floor and walls. As he began moving, he caught the attention of the diamond dog assigned to guard duty.

“Wake up, brothers!” the guard exclaimed, slamming his spearbutt on the ground to rouse his sleeping comrades. The deep baritone of his voice, accompanied by the slamming of the spear, reverberated through the cave, and the diamond dogs slowly woke from their slumber.

“What is it you wish, Alpha Rex?” one of the other pack members groggily asked.

“Our wounded brother has finally come to,” the alpha stated.

The wounded diamond dog tried to speak and vocalize a warning, to make the party aware of the looming threat; the creature was coming. The shackled beast that had wiped out his entire colony was coming. It thirsted for blood, the blood of diamond dogs. Again, as he tried to vocalize his concerns, little more than a wheeze came from his throat.

“Fetch our brother some water!” the alpha exclaimed.

The wounded diamond dog was brought a dog bowl of water. It was placed near his chin and he slowly began lapping it up. Once his throat had been wetted, he tried to speak again.

“H-help,” he rasped. “It comes. We captured it, made it dig, dig like the ponies! But it escaped! Broke free of its shackles! We never should have moved to the new caves, but Alpha Fido made us! The ponies stopped coming near our fields! He told us to move! I told him it was a bad idea but he pulled out his sharp stick!” The diamond dog began looking around feverishly; a flash of lightning splayed a tall shadow across the inner wall of the cave, the dancing campfire altering and distorting it. The diamond dog screeched and tried to push himself further back into the cave. “It is outside!” he yelled, pointing towards the entrance of the cave.The pack turned their heads in unison towards the opening, seeing nothing, they dismissed it as a hallucination created by a stressed and addled mind.

“Any idea what he’s talking about?” one of the pack asked another.

“No clue,” came the response, “but he said his colony switched caves. He looks seriously wounded, so I doubt he came from too far away. But the only colony stationed near here was those Ponyville failures.”

“Oh, gods you don’t mean one of those inbred morons do you?” asked another pack member who had overheard their conversation.

“I heard they couldn’t even control one unicorn!” yet another pack member chimed in.

“This is why a packbrother and packsister should never breed— the pups will be complete retards. Anyways, we should move to the back of the cave. I don’t want Alpha Rex to start yelling at us for making idle talk.” The conversationalists moved to the rear of the cave.

“It is there!” the wounded diamond dog cried. “I saw it! I saw it!” he insisted.

“Brother, calm down. If it will put your mind at ease, then I will go,” Alpha Rex reassured. “Let’s slow down and start with introductions. My I am Alpha Rex, and this is my pack,” he gestured with an open paw towards the space that the small group of dogs had previously inhabited. “Well, it looks like they aren’t here, but they are in the cave.”

“I-I am Wishbone. Please, you must leave this place. It is outside. We must flee.”

Alpha rex took a moment to observe Wishbone. He raised an eyebrow at his guest’s haggard appearance. Everything from his marred brown coat, to widened, bloodshot eyes, and tattered blue coat gave him a frenzied appearance. Rex could have even swore he saw fleckles of foam rushing out of Wishbone’s mouth.

The alpha narrowed his eyes before smiling. “Alright,” he said. “If it’ll make you feel any better

The alpha stepped outside and looked around. He saw nothing out of the ordinary save for the rain that was pattering down onto the wasteland and the occasional flash of lightning. Smiling, he walked back inside and sat down next to the campfire. He leaned in closer to his guest so that his face was directly parallel to the others’. “See, my brother? I have stepped outside and looked around. I am fine, and I saw nothing. Calm down, brother. You are safe here, amongst us.”

“No! We are not safe! No one is safe from it! It will hunt us! It will kill us! My colony was killed! Destroyed! Fire! Boom powder! It left no one alive! Pups, bitches, all are it’s enemies! None shall survive! Repent! Beg for forgiveness! The end is near!” the wounded dog preached.

The alpha covered his ears with his paws, wincing at the volume of the dog screaming. “Brother, you are delirious. You must rest,” he reassured. “Gemfinder!” he called, “Fetch our guest some of the sleeping powder we found in our last raid!”

When no response came, he called again, louder. “Gemfinder!?” He quickly moved back as an object was thrown into the campfire from above, extinguishing it. “Gemfinder! I am the alpha! You will follow my orders and cease this foolishness!” he exclaimed as he moved the object off the fire. “This is heavy, and wet.” he muttered. His attempts to relight the campfire were in vain as the wet object had dampened the wood. He turned as he heard screams coming from one of the caverns. “Brothers! You will be punished for this mischief!” he shouted. He heard running, getting closer and closer, a scurrying and a fall followed by a scream and a splatter. Silence. He reached into his bag, and grabbed some igniting powder and a flint. He sprinkled the powder over the dampened logs and struck the flint against his speartip. The resulting spark landed on the powder, and soon, a fire had crackled to life, re-illuminating the cave.

The alpha looked down to find that the wet object he had thrown, was in fact Gemfinder. His eyes widened at the sight of the bloodied corpse; his attention was drawn in particular to a large hole where Gemfinder’s neck would normally meet his skull.“What in Canis’ name?” Rex whispered to himself. He entered his alert mode. There was someone or something else with them in this cave, and it was hunting them. The fire that had previously silently been burning roared into life as

“IT IS HERE!” the wounded diamond dog exclaimed. “IT HAS COME FOR US! WE MUST REPENT! THERE IS NO ESCAPE!”

“No,” Rex said. “It has killed one of my packbrothers. I will kill it.” He turned to move further into the caves when he was interrupted by his annoying guest.

“You cannot fight it. My colony tried, and all of them are dead. We never should have put it in shackles.” The wounded diamond dog now began crying. “There is no escape from what we’ve done. We must repent, and hope it is merciful.”

“I’ll not stand by while my brothers are killed,” Rex stated, his anger rising as a result of his guest’s audacity. He turned to further berate the wounded diamond dog. “My brothers are dying. Perhaps things were different in your colony, but in my pack we—” He was interrupted yet again, this time, by a spear being driven through the back of his neck, severing his spinal column.

A figure dropped from one of the higher caverns and looked at the wounded diamond dog. He moved to Rex’s corpse and pulled the spear out from his neck. The figure then advanced towards the wounded diamond dog, remaining silent.

“I’m sorry,” the diamond dog whimpered, a smile of acceptance stretching across his face.

“I accept. May you find peace, or damnation in the afterlife,” the figure stated. He drew his arm back and drove the spear through the wounded one’s face.

The figure looked around the cave for any supplies he might find. After gathering what he deemed useful from the cavern, he extinguished the fire and moved back into the rainstorm.

Author's Note:

Edited and preread by Sorren and Nonagon

Comments

[WIL_I_ZIN]

Good Start.

I'll keep an eye on this.

[GuyFace]

Shit, brother. You have enabled feces to become reality.

[Among survivors]

Good chapter. has definitely peeked my interest.

[Detective Chmilewsky]

Like it, but it needs less caps lock in dialogue.

[Zweihander]

Please be a Space marine. PUH-LEEZE be a space marine.

[Ponynator]

OH....YEAH....

[norsefire]

Please don't be a soldier or space marine of any sort. Pleease.

[TonydBrony]

Yep. You grabbed my attention, and I am going to have to read this now. It sounds so...evil, yet I WANT TO READ THIS! And I shall.

[D-Bence35]

Diamond dog conference the week after:
"I fear no one. But that... thing... It scares me."
"No, I ain't talking about that freak, alright! He's not here, is he? How do I get this f*cking thing off?"
"One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that mask. What dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?"

[onsholo]

YES!PUPPY BLOOD FOR THE PUPPY BLOOD GOD!

[Corvo]

The music link on here is broken (first chapter.)

[An hero]

2060151 * Fixed*