Maud blearily opens her eyes, greeted only by a floor of solid stone connected to a similar wall. While for most this would cause alarm, rocks were this mare’s life, so the view is actually quite comforting as she came to her senses. Closing her eyes for another moment, she feels the familiar weight of her pet in her pocket and the minute vibrations of steps through the thick stone. As her wits return to her, she pushes herself up into a sitting position, looking around and feeling what feels like a hoof slide off her back.
A familiar face makes itself known as its owner takes a polite step away. The silver changeling sighs in relief, smiling warmly at the mare. “Glad to see you’re awake, now. I was almost worried you’d stay asleep…”
The grey mare speaks plainly, noting that Dior seems to be on what amounts to a ‘bed’ in the small room. ‘Bed’, of course, meaning a small layer of straw on slightly elevated stone. “I got hit in the fight?”
“Yes, you did.” She grimaces slightly. “Rather harshly in the back of the head, too. Glad it was a blunt object…” She shakes her head, holding a hoof out to her. “You aren’t still in pain, are you?”
“Small discomfort, should wear off soon.” She places her hoof in Dior’s, speaking in a whisper, yet still emotionlessly. “Did the others manage to escape?”
“Yes, they did.” She giggles softly, tapping her on the nose. “Diamond dogs can’t fly, after all.”
“No, they can’t…” Maud looks over at the sturdy metal door before facing the nymph once more. “At least I have a nice cellmate.”
“Thanks.” Dior smirks playfully. “I like to think I’m better than some ponies…” She glances through the bars again, brow furrowing slightly. “...didn’t think I wouldn’t be as nice as her, though.”
Raising one eyebrow, Maud turns to see through the bars separating their cell from the one next to theirs. The sight that greets her is… unexpected.
In a cell mirroring theirs, Gilda lays on the ‘bed’, curled protectively around the unconscious form of Winter. One talon rests on his head, alternating between checking for consciousness and running through the stallion’s mane, both beings oblivious to the world around them.
Blinking slowly, Maud remarks wryly and quietly. “There is more cuddling than I expected.”
“I know, right?” She shakes her head. “Still, it’s a sweet scene, and I don’t really want to interrupt it.”
“Yes.” Looking over to their own bed, the mare asks, “may I come up there too?”
“I don’t mind.” She smiles, shifting to the side to give her some room. “Go ahead and make yourself comfortable.”
Hopping up onto the straw-covered stone, Maud smooths her frock before laying down, looking to Dior then the door. “It begins.”
Catching their attention is a soft groan from the other cell as Winter finally begins to stir. The unicorn’s first reaction upon regaining conscious control of his body is to try and push away the unrecognizable mass of feathers he feels against him, unable to tell who they belong to due to his eyes not yet being open.
Gilda doesn’t move other than to take her talon and try to keep the pony still. “Careful, don’t want to fall off and hit your head again. Probably can’t spare knocking out too many more brain cells.”
His ears are not yet fully functional and his eyes are still shut, but nevertheless, Winter stops moving as he recognizes the voice based solely on her choice of words. He mumbles something incomprehensible.
“Try again, didn’t catch that.” The lioness tail flicks as the griffon lays there.
Winter grumbles as, at last, his eyes open, albeit at a slow pace. “I said...I’m fine, let me go.”
Without a word, the talon removes itself from him, tucking itself back against its owner. “Nasty hit you took.”
As quickly as his still-waking up body lets him, the stallion gets to his hooves and leans against the wall as he glances over himself to check for injuries. “I took worse before I even graduated school. I’ll be fine.”
“Good, because they’ll probably put us all to work anyway, not matter how much you whine.” She chuckles. “Feel up to getting outworked by three girls?”
“Yeah, like they’d put a unicorn to physical labour. How do you think they know where to dig for gems?” He tilts his head to the left, his neck cracking loudly, and again as he does the same on the right. “Even if they did, considering it’s specifically you three girls, I wouldn’t take much of a hit to my self-esteem. A griffon, a rock farmer, and an actual rock are never fair competition when it comes to strength output.”
“Good.” She pats his head. “Now I don’t have to beat that into you.”
With a growl, Winter yanks his head away from her claw, apparently not enjoying the gesture. “Don’t touch me. I don’t know where those talons have been.”
Her small smile immediately flips to a large frown. “Exactly what does that mean?!”
“I’ve been unconscious for who knows how long, and I just now woke up down here in a jail cell. How am I supposed to know what you’ve been doing in the meantime?”
A growl rumbles in her throat as she glares at him before jumping off the bed and starting to stalk moodily around the cell. “They’ve been clacking on stone and making sure you weren’t dead. Wondering if I should regret that.”
His expression softens as he sits down. “Right...sorry. And thanks for...for worrying.” He forces a chuckle. “But you really didn’t need to. You know I refuse to die unless it’s of my own volition.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever…” She huffs, looking over to the bars and the occupants of the joined cell. “So how are you two holding up?”
“Surprisingly, fairly well.” She scratches her head, glancing out at the door to their cell. “I didn’t expect them to just… leave us alone, this long.”
“How long has it been?” Winter asks, suddenly looking around frantically. “And where’s Merc?”
“It’s… been two hours, Solstice.” Dior cringes slightly. “And… they took him away. We don’t know where.”
The unicorn lets out a low growl as he kicks the wall. “Luna damn me...he better be alright...”
“If they brought him, they might keep him around for entertainment,” Maud suggests, trying to help. This only causes Winter to kick the wall again, harder.
“Hey,” the nymph reaches between the bars, gently resting a hoof on his shoulder, “it’ll be fine. These dogs can’t dish out anything he hasn’t handled before.”
The stallion calms down slightly, but he still lets out another growl before beginning to take deep breaths. “...Gilda. You still have that...that book, right?”
“Yeah,” she shifts slightly, revealing a small shape under one wing, “even less comfortable than the other stuff. Plus it keeps me from stretching my wings.”
“Go ahead and give it back to me now that we’re in. But keep the knives. I doubt they’ll care that we managed to sneak a book in, but if they see we have weapons, they’ll be on us like a fire hydrant.”
Dior clanks her head against the bars, groaning softly. “I didn’t need that mental image…”
Winter facehoofs. “I didn’t mean it like that! You try thinking up metaphors on the spot that involve dogs. Not easy.”
“Like we’re chew toys.” She shakes her head before her ear twitches, her gaze snapping to the tunnel beyond their cell doors. “I… I think they’re coming…”
As he takes the blue book from the griffon, Winter snickers. “And I didn’t need that mental image.”
The lone earth pony comments. “Bad joke.”
“No regrets.”
Before anyone else can make a remark, the metal door to the cell containing Maud and Dior swings open, a large gray diamond dog standing in the doorway, halfway leaning on a large metal pickaxe. It growls at them before speaking in a reasonably comprehensible voice. “You two. Come. No tricks.”
“Okay.” Maud calmly gets off the bed and walks straight toward the dog, no expression of fear, nervousness, or anything else on her face.
The nymph follows, looking up at him as she pauses in the doorway. “When you say tricks, do you mean parlor tricks, magic tricks, or something else?”
The dog lets out a gruff, but genuinely amused, laugh. “Rock lady thinks she’s funny!” His expression quickly becomes a stiff glare. “No trying to run. No hiding. Only do what told to do. Anything else, you get pickaxe in stone skull.”
She opens her mouth to respond but thinks twice, wincing at the thought of anything going into her head. She silently nods, walking out past the dog.
“Stay,” the dog orders them, ignorant of the irony as it heads to the other cell door and opens it. “Both of you two, come. Same rules. Do nothing but what told to do, got it?”
“Yeah yeah, just do me a favor and face away from me with that breath of yours,” the griffon remarks as she passes him. A subtle look of surprise on his face, the canine exhales on his paw and sniffs it, only to make a face.
Winter, for his part, walks by without a word or even glancing at the dog. When he joins the other three, they’re beckoned by the guard to follow along down a narrow tunnel. He says nothing more, simply expecting the prisoners to walk with him. The heavy pickaxe slung over his shoulder purges any desire they may have had to disobey orders.
It doesn’t quell the attempts at talking, though, and the dog seems not to care about doing so. “Sol,” the marble changeling hisses, leaning close to him, “I think we’re… about a mile beneath the surface…”
The unicorn nods in response. “No surprise that they’re this far underground already...just keep an eye out for tunnels branching off from where they take us. The larger they are, the better the chance that they’ll lead to the way out.” He puts one hoof to the side as they walk, brushing it against the dirt and rock wall. “Doubt they’d be able to transfer a whole town of kidnapped ponies through a tunnel this thin.”
“Wider tunnel, less crowding. Got it.” She huffs softly, eyes flicking to the few tunnels they pass. “Though, if the fear in the air is anything to go by… these are all prisoner areas…”
“See if you can sense any anger,” Winter requests. “The stronger someone is, the angrier they’d be if they got caught and taken prisoner. The angry ones are the ones we can rely on best for backup when the time comes.”
“I’ll try, but it’ll be a bit hard to pin down.” She gestures to the dog before them. “More so with them watching.”
Winter nods again, then thinks for a moment. “...how are the diamond dogs feeling? Can you tell?”
She nods, brow furrowing slightly. “That’s what’s been confusing me…”
“What’s wrong?”
“I can sense fear from the captives…” She closes her eyes, frowning deeply. “But I also feel… a large amount of... regret? Sorrow? I don’t know what it is, exactly…” She shakes her head. “It’s a kaleidoscope of emotions, always shifting…”
“Hm...” Winter hums to himself. “...any...positive emotions?”
“Yes, but it’s only from one location…” She scratches her head, groaning softly. “I’m sorry… all this negativity is…”
Winter, realizing how the negative emotions are affecting the nymph, closes his eyes. He starts to think about a certain pony, adjusting the hat that has somehow remained on his head to reinforce his thoughts further.
Dior blinks, feeling the warmth in the air around her friend. She looks at him, concerned. “Are… are you sure I should? You know what happens if I take too much…”
The unicorn nods. “It’ll be okay. If you start having problems, I’ll stop. But for now, you need this.” He smiles at her as they pass by another tunnel to the left.
She opens her mouth to respond only to have her voice die out, a shiver going through her body. “I… I think I just felt… hope…”
Surprised, the royal blue stallion glances back at the tunnel they had just passed. In his mind, he does his best to memorize the general area. “...hm...”
“Here now.” The dog leading them stops walking as they pass into a large chamber of sorts, roughly circle-shaped and with a ceiling high enough a pegasus could fly around with little difficulty. Throughout the room are groups of other slaves; most of them earth ponies likely from Appleloosa, but there are a couple of unicorns, pegasi, and buffalo as well. All around, diamond dogs of various sizes and simple colours watch over the slaves, sometimes barking orders or threatening a ‘lazy’ slave with bodily harm. Other dogs stand in the middle of the room, watching over a cage and mostly obscuring it from the team’s view.
Four or five tunnels branch off from the room, most being as narrow as the one the group had been walking down, but one being over three times as wide. However, not too far down that tunnel, it slopes upward, making it impossible to see what’s down the path from where the group currently stands.
Dior leans in close to the stallion. “I think we might have found our exit…”
He nods. “We won’t be using it for a while...but at least we know where it is.”
The bipedal canine turns to the group of four. “Griffon. You pull cart.” He points a sharp claw towards a small collection of ragged earth pony slaves, tugging large carts full of dirt or gems behind them down one of the narrow tunnels. Watching over them is a dog similar to the guard that had fetched the four, but this one is brown and lacks the pickaxe, its sheer strength made evident by its gigantic arms enough to persuade the ponies to continue.
“My joy is unbridled that ‘no’ isn’t an option. Nor is eye-pecking.” The sarcasm in her voice is almost tangible as she walks over, the proud stalking stroll quickly moving to a more depressed slump.
“Rock lady, earth pony. Dig.” This time, the dog just sweeps his paw around as though gesturing to the whole room. “No matter where. Just dig. If unicorn finds gems, dig where they say.”
The taller of the two tilts her head to one side. “Dig… anywhere? If you say so.” She turns to the side, winking at Winter as she passes and heads off to one side of the room.
Watching the changeling go off, Maud blinks, looking down and tapping the ground with a hoof. Without a word, she keeps tapping as she walks over to one of a few stone pillars in the room. As she reaches the base, she stands alongside it, tapping one more time before nodding, cracking her neck and raising her hoof back as her eyes narrow.
The limb slams down with tremendous force, shattering the stone in a radius around the impact site and thoroughly terrifying slave and dog alike with the thunderous sound it causes to rumble around the cavern. They only have about a second to recover before her other hoof comes up and does the same as she quickly adopts a slow and steady rhythm, creating an entirely new tunnel going downward into the solid rock. Small bits of rubble shake loose as she starts to walk into the hole.
“...why we always get weird ones?” the diamond dog grumbles. A couple other dogs head off down the hole as well, barking back at other slaves to bring support beams. With a rough sigh, the gray diamond dog turns to Winter and points at the still-obscured cage. “Go, unicorn. Find gems. Stay near cage.”
The stallion doesn’t respond, trotting off in the direction of the cage as though he didn’t hear the order and was just going in that direction anyway. As he gets closer, over the cacophony, he starts hearing a familiar yipping voice.
‘Let me out! I swear, I’ll nip your ankles if you don’t!’ The voice stops for a second. ‘Wait… I can’t do that if you don’t…’ There’s a plaintive whine. ‘Win, where are you? I don’t like small spaces…’
The trot becomes a gallop almost instantly, and quickly Winter has almost shoved his way past the diamond dogs to get to the cage. “Merc!”
‘Win!’ He tries to look at him, his muzzle poking out between the bars. ‘I’m glad you’re alright! The last time I saw you, someone hit you over the head with a club!’
“Yeah, I think I remember that time,” the stallion replies with a dry chuckle. His voice drops to a whisper. “I don’t think I can get you out of there just yet, so try to hang on for a bit. I’ll stay as close by as I can, okay? This shouldn’t take more than a day or two.”
‘I hope so.’ He sighs, pulling back from the cage door. ‘It’s way too cramped in here...’
“I promise, I’ll do my best to-” Before Winter can finish, a light brown diamond dog forcibly turns him around, then clicks a pair of shackles into place around his front legs.
Behind him, another dog sticks a similar pair around his hind legs. “So unicorn does not run off. Now, magic. Find gems.”
The unicorn sighs and turns back to Mercury. “...so you want to guess how many spells I know that can be used to find gems underground?”
He rolls his eyes. ‘I’m going to guess the same amount I know.’
“We have a winner.”
Off on her side of the room, the silver nymph casually strolls along, peeling stone away from the wall with ease as she passes, revealing the mineral deposits underneath. She sighs, shaking her head ruefully. “They should’ve made this a coal mine, with all the veins, down here…” She stops mid-step, eyes glued on the column to her left. “Ooh.” She smirks, stepping away from the wall and approaching the pillar. “Inspiration… it’s calling me.”
She immediately gets to work, peeling away strip after strip of sandstone, letting them coalesce into a pile on the floor. “A little less here… a little more here…” She grabs a fallen piece and applies it to the spot she mentioned and steps back, beaming proudly. “Perfect!” She turns to the dog who led her from her cell, smiling warmly. “Wouldn’t you agree, Fluffy?”
The grey dog in question just stares at the creation; a stone replica of himself, but with a far cleaner and more sophisticated appearance. “...uh...” He quickly regains composure and gives the nymph a look. “This...this not help search for gems.”
“I know.” She giggles, pointing up at the sapphire eyes she gave it. “I did find a couple, but it’d be such a waste to take them out.” She walks over to him, teasingly stroking his cheek with a hoof. “Don’t you agree, Fluffy?”
The slightest hint of red becomes visible under the grey fur, and ‘Fluffy’ swats the hoof away. “Waste would be to leave gems in a...” He glances around, as if checking to see if anyone is listening in. Noticing that the two are more or less alone, he sighs and turns. “...is good job. Leave be.”
Dior smiles, nodding towards a wall behind them. “There’s a few gems in all that coal. I’m sure that’ll smooth things over with the others, hmm?”
Folding his arms, the dog nods almost reluctantly and walks over to the wall, starting to dig with his claws. Occasionally, he glances back at the nymph with an unreadable expression, but doesn’t say anything to her.
She happily helps him, letting her silver hooves get covered in coal dust as she works to free the gems hidden in the slag. Her gaze flicks over to him a few times, as well, at one point catching the other’s eyes. The changeling decides to play off this, taking a hoof and drawing a black circle around one eye, coyly sticking her tongue out in an attempt to get him to laugh.
Impressively, this actually garners an amused reaction from the dog, who smirks at the silliness before making a comment. “You take this all very lightly.”
“Well, you seem like a nice guy.” She smiles warmly, turning her attention to the vein once more. “I’m used to the earth, anyways.” She waves a hoof, winking at him. “Though I’m sure you could already tell.”
“With you being made of rock, yes, it was not hard to tell. How did that happen anyway?”
She blinks, looking at him uncertainly. “You sure you want to know? It’s… kind of a downer.”
He raises a furry eyebrow. “I spend life underground digging gems and catching slaves. Life is big downer already. I can handle.”
She considers this for a few seconds before nodding in acceptance. “If you’re sure.” She sighs, turning to the coal and clawing away some more. “Long story short… I died.” She tosses a few lumps behind her into a steadily growing pile. “My soul ended up wandering around a bit until I entered one of my statues, of my daughter.” She chuckles softly, slowing down a bit. “It took a while, but I eventually gained the form you see today.” She turns her head away, tapping at a small symbol on the back of her neck. “This is the proof that I’m just inhabiting this form.”
The dog, confused, looks at the back of her neck. “So...the picture lets you exist?”
“Well, yes and no, Fluffy.” She scratches her chin, pulling a diamond out of the vein. “It’s a sign that I’m never going to die. Not in the true sense of the word, anyways.” She shrugs. “If this body were to perish, I’d probably end up in that statue of you.” She nods behind them, handing him the gem, which fits perfectly in his palm. “It’s a blessing... and a curse.”
The dog doesn’t respond at first, just silently pocketing the gem and going back to digging, albeit at a slower pace. He seems to be contemplating what she said. “...you live an odd life.”
“Maybe.” She smiles, pulling free a gem fragment. “But I have friends who help make it better.” She gives it to him, pausing to look up at him. “You surely have friends, too, don’t you?”
“I have slaves and fellow workers.” He speaks plainly and - for a diamond dog - calmly. “That is all.”
“Well, that certainly seems lonely.” She taps her chin as she thinks, ignorant of the small beard she’s giving herself. “Tell you what - I’ll be your friend.” She holds out her hoof to him. “That is, if you want me to.”
He blinks and looks at her, once again confused, with a hint of suspicion. “...why? You are slave. I am slaver. You should hate me.”
“Let me tell you a little something about changelings.” She leans in close, standing on the tips of her hooves to whisper in his ear. “We can sense emotions. I know how you feel, and no one who’s good deserves to feel that way.”
That stops his mining entirely. His expression changes to one of surprise. “...you sense feelings?”
“Yeah. I can feel happiness, love, anger…” She places a hoof on his paw. “Regret. Any number of emotions.”
The dog looks at the hoof on his paw, then back at the wall. His expression is once again unreadable, but his quiet sigh betrays his thoughts. “...I never like this. The slaves, the prisoners, the yelling. Was better when just us digging gems. Then big dog find mine and town.”
“Big dog?” She glances at the rest of the room, then turns back to the vein, digging so he wouldn’t get in trouble. “Who is that, Fluffy?”
“Big dog is Alpha. He our boss.” He resumes digging as well. “He say kidnap town ponies to dig. Normally we not go that far, but his new friend dangerous. He threaten some of us, bribe others, and we take ponies. Then he say take more. Now we no dig, we just watch.”
She looks up at him from where she’s crouched, her head partway in the hole. “His new friend?” She frowns slightly, filing this away under things to mention to Solstice later, and turns back to the vein. “I think it’s almost dried up, here… so, are you saying you like to dig?”
He backs away from the torn-apart wall. “All diamond dogs like to dig. It what we do. Like pegasuses fly and unicorns use magic. But now we have to like watching ponies and buffalo and griffons do it for us.”
“Well…” Dior scratches her chin, walking over to another, untouched section. “What if he were no longer in control? What if you were the one in control?”
The dog balks, looking at her with surprise. “Alpha always in control. Ever since pack start. Until he die and we fight for leadership, we listen to him.”
“Between you and me…” She smiles softly at him. “I don’t think he will be on top, much longer.”
“...you plan to take him down.” It is a statement, not a question.
“Maybe.” Her eyes dart to the room at large. “The main issue would be to not hurt those that don’t deserve it… but, if I’m not mistaken…” She holds her hoof out to him once more, hopeful. “Would you be willing to help, when the time comes?”
He looks at her hoof, then back out at the large room, unsure. He sighs before turning back to her with an answer.
This suuuuuuuuuuucks… Gilda’s thoughts take on almost as monotonous of a pattern as her assignment. Drag cart to pile of dirt, wait for it to get heavy, trudge with cart to a pile of dirt in a different part of the cave. Dump the dirt out, walk right back to the first pile again. All this with nothing to look at but the back of another cart doing the exact same damn thing, and occasionally a view of other working creatures in the few times she wasn’t in a tunnel.
She’d be crazy in a week if she was here that long. If not from the mind-numbing repetition, then from the damn dogs using the harness to strap her wings to her sides to make sure she wouldn’t try anything. That and being so far underground was quickly getting the predator a combination of riled up and beat down.
Looking around her, she could see others with the expression of ones who experienced that for far longer than she did. Depression, resignation, even ponies who seemed to not even think at all anymore, reduced to just mindless trudging animals to shelter what little sanity they had left.
But this wasn’t the case everywhere. There was a particular buffalo, one who size dwarfed most of his kind and certainly almost all of the creatures in the cavern. His head stayed up strong, his pace determined, his eyes alert. This was a being who was not beaten yet. Watching him effortlessly shoulder his burdens, she saw his gaze rove over the others in the brief times she could get a clear view of him.
“Hey!”
A high pitched voice caught her attention, one that grated on her nerves more than any other, and yet was probably the one source of amusement she had in this place. “What?”
The small dog to her left walks over, waving a paw threateningly. “Why did bird stop moving? You holding up other slaves!”
Evidently diamond dogs come in breeds too, including chihuahua. “Keep your collar on, just seeing where I need to go next.”
“That was simple!” The canine points to a barely visible cart. “All you had to do was follow other bird!”
She puffs up her feathers, a wholly unnecessary action seeing as she was already bigger than her, but it made the griffon laugh on the inside the more she could look down on her. “How the hell am I supposed to see who I’m following? All I see is carts bigger than the things pulling them! And all the carts look the same!”
“You were standing right behind her!” The small dog throws both paws up in the air, exasperated. “You didn’t need to think, and you still screwed up!”
Unable to ignore her snarky side for so perfect an opportunity, Gilda can’t help but reply. “At least I didn’t screw up puberty.”
This comment is met with a club in her face. “Do not make me use this on you, bird! Your friends took hours to wake up, and we don’t want to waste time around here!”
Scowling, the half-bird sneers at the runt. “Well, what do you suggest then? Either mark a path, or tell me something I can actually follow.”
The dog slams her club into the floor, cracking the stone, before pointing with it. “Just go where the other bird went, and follow from there! Even you understand that!”
“Alright alright, don’t want you making your voice any shriller…” Gilda starts walking, eyeing what will be her new place in line. “Didn’t think a guy’s voice could stay that high.”
The dog calls after her as she leaves, arms flailing angrily. “Not male, stupid bird!”
Getting in line behind the buffalo she had her eye on, Gilda thinks to herself. No wonder that mouse dog was such a bitch.
“Losing patience, unicorn! Find gems!”
A large paw swats Winter on the back of the head as though trying to kickstart his horn, which has been sparkling faintly with no effect. He grunts, but remains upright and continues trying to cast a spell he’s never learned.
‘Hey! Give the guy a break!’ Mercury growls at the dog, his fur bristling angrily. ‘He doesn’t like flashy things! Big deal!’
“Make the fox be quiet!” the diamond dog yells to no one in particular. “Last chance, unicorn!”
Breathing heavily, the stallion continues to try, starting to sweat from the force. He tries to sense gems in the earth, but a unicorn attempting a spell they’ve never learned is like trying to draw a picture of something they’ve never seen. Tense moments pass, and his horn stops sparkling altogether as he slumps down, groaning from the pounding headache he now has to deal with.
“Unicorn worthless at finding gems.” The lankier of the diamond dogs shakes his head, grabbing Winter by the scruff of his neck. “Let him dig, instead!”
The other dog nods, grabbing a rusty key and starting to unlock the shackles. “If he worthless at that too, take him to Alpha instead.”
“He would make great chambermaid for him.” He laughs, shaking his head.
Despite his headache, Winter still manages a remark. “On the contrary, I’ve been known to fail at keeping things clean even more than digging.” He smirks, remembering his office.
The dog shakes him, snarling angrily. “Then you’ll be his foot rest.”
“Nine out of ten chiropodists say pony backs are not very comfortable for feet to rest on.”
“Enough!” With a loud growl, the dog not holding him finishes undoing the shackles and smacks him in the face. “Go dig for gems or we dig your grave!”
They start carrying him away, but they almost immediately have to cover their ears, letting him fall to the floor as a piercing howl escapes the cage. “GAH! Make it stop!”
Free of the shackles, Winter has no problem getting back on all four hooves, as dizzy as he feels from failed magic use and repeated slaps. He makes his way back over to the cage to comfort Mercury. “Shhh...quiet down. It’s alright. I’m here...”
Abandoning his lankier comrade, one of the diamond dogs gets up and grabs Winter again, yanking him away far more violently than the other had. “Had it up to here with you, pesky unicorn!”
Like before, Mercury howls and yelps, paw reaching out for his friend. ‘Stop it! Bring him back!’
Once again, the diamond dog drops the stallion to clutch at his ears. And once again, Winter is back at the cage in seconds, calming the fox down.
This time, the diamond dog hesitates before going for the grab. “What do we do? Fox make too much noise when unicorn taken...”
“Just leave unicorn!” The skinny canine groans, struggling to get back up. “Not worth pain!”
With a sigh mixed with a growl, the dog shoots a glare at the pony and his fox friend before storming off to do work elsewhere, the lankier dog doing the same.
Before they can get far, however, a small form enters the cave, and the two stop in their tracks. The figure takes a few steps forward, stepping into the light of the torches. The flames illuminate sea green fur, her emotionless purple eyes staring at the retreating duo. “Alpha wants to know what the racket is about. So what is it about?”
“N-Nothing major,” one dog stuttered. “Just argument with slave...problem has been solved.”
“You’d better hope so.” Her eyes slowly move to Winter, almost appearing to look through him. “You wouldn’t like Alpha when he’s angry.” She moves forward, her gaze never leaving the stallion’s face. She stops in front of him, turning to look back at the burlier of the dogs. “Why isn’t he shackled? Isn’t that the rule for all unicorns, down here?”
The dog fidgets. “W-We unshackled unicorn to put to digging, but the fox would not be quiet if unicorn was not kept nearby. So we leave unicorn to keep fox quiet so long as unicorn does not leave.”
“Fox?” She quickly looks to the cage, the first spark of interest in her eyes. “Leave. I’ll tell him it was nothing to worry about.” As the dogs scramble away, the filly leans in close to the cage, staring at the being within. “Hello, Mercury. I hope you enjoy your little room; I really do.”
Winter blinks, looking between the two. “...what?”
She glances up at the stallion and turns away, just as slowly as she entered the room. “I think Alpha will want to hear about all this. Maybe he’ll come up with a solution to benefit you two… maybe.” She turns the corner, leaving them alone.
“Or maybe I’ll come up with a solution that just benefits us,” Winter grumbles just loud enough for himself and Mercury to hear. “It’s called asphyxiation. I’m sure ‘Alpha’ would love it.”
‘Win…’ The fox places a paw on his friend’s foreleg, concerned. ‘I… I think I know that filly.’
“Yeah, I had a feeling.” He sighs. “Lemme guess. She’s the one.”
‘Yeah… she’s the one...’ He goes quiet for a second. ‘I always felt bad for her, frankly.’
Winter looks at his friend with confusion, slightly mixed with annoyance over the previous event. “Felt bad for her?”
‘I’ll… explain it later. It’s not a story for public ears.’ He glances around, nervous. ‘I think some of these guys can actually understand me...’
“Great. Because we didn’t have enough inconveniences already.” The stallion growls quietly in a way that makes one wonder if the diamond dogs are rubbing off on him. “First you’re in a cage. Then we have to fight a fire-breathing filly - and I still don’t know which part of that makes it harder. And, now, these idiots who can’t even speak in proper sentences can understand you.” He slams his head against the bars of the cage and lets it rest there. “Dear Celestia, can we get a little break here?!”
Right at that moment, Dior walks up, a small smile on her lips. “It turns out we might not be fighting this alone.” She looks to the large canine behind her, smiling kindly. “Isn’t that right, Fluffy?”
The diamond dog in question nods, a smile of his own on his lips. Winter looks at Dior, then at the dog, then closes his eyes and chuckles. “Thank you, Celestia. Amen.”
Mercury looks up, hopeful. ‘If you’re listening, could I have some food? Some berries, maybe?’
When nothing happens, Winter smirks a little and reaches his hoof through the bars to rub his friend’s head. “Sorry. Guess she can’t understand you either.”
The fox groans, resting his head on the horizontal bar of his cage. ‘Darn it…’