Back at the mines, on their way to the top, Glory marked the spot at which she found diamonds with her stick. To her surprise, Sarama wasn´t hypnotized by it like the other dogs were, giving Glory more reason to be cautious around her.
Once an x was formed on the ground, Sarama signed the dogs to dig. While waiting for them to finish, she eyed suspiciously at Glory from time to time. Though she had the evidence, Sarama was still skeptical of her abilities to find good quality crystals and diamonds. Perhaps the unicorn only had a stroke of luck. But after seeing the large quantity of crystal gems and other diamonds the dogs had found, she began to doubt her theory.
“Alright!” the bulldog said while laying them carefully on the cart attached to Glory. “That´s 20 more pieces for our great leader Crunch!”
“Hm…” Sarama tapped her chin in thought. “That was impressive, I admit that.” she said to Glory. “But you´ll have to get the same number or even more to make me believe you have a special talent.”
“Yes ma´am…” Glory said somewhat overwhelmed, as she wasn´t sure how many more times she would be able to pull out this trick successfully. In addition, time was against her.
And so, the same procedure was repeated many times on the way. Fortunately, Glory was able to find a good number of diamonds or crystal gems every time, although there were times she needed more effort, did mistakes or took less diamonds. Nonetheless, she impressed Sarama, but also left her concerned. While certainly an advantage for raw material extraction, there was also something alarming about this fact. Due to Grogar´s prohibition on unicorns of using their magic and learning spells unless it´s for the purpose of holding and manipulating objects; no unicorn she had ever supervised before knew how to use their special talent. Some even had no idea they had one! That was not Glory´s case. She had more knowledge about her special talent than the average unicorn. Somepony must have taught her. And as far as Sarama was concerned, there was only one unicorn who knew more about magic than Grogar allows…
“My, you´re quite the detector…” Sarama said to Glory in `admiration´ while walking to another tunnel. “How did you get so good at it?”
Glory felt her heartbeat speeding up. Knowing Sarama, this was not a question of genuine curiosity but of suspicion. The stories were right, there was not a single detail that escaped from her. Though lying to Sarama wasn´t the best option, staying silent was a stronger give away. So, she quickly came up with the most logical explanation.
“My mother taught me. She came from a family that worked with crystals. They used the same spells I´m using right now.”
“And how is it that your parents knew these spells? You know better than me how Emperor Grogar feels about using non object manipulation magic…”
“Well, this spell was taught throughout generations. And they used it to quicken work. Granted, that´s what got them executed.”
“And yet, you use that spell?” Sarama raised an eyebrow.
“Well, the results are more effective, aren´t they?”
Sarama frowned in response, intimidating Glory. But to her surprise and relief, the dog chuckled.
“Ha! I like your way of thinking. But don´t get too comfortable around me, so watch out on how you talk to me and on what you tell me. Are we clear?”
Glory nodded. Once she wasn´t looking at her, she stared estranged at Sarama. Obviously, her last words were a warning, and perhaps deep down she already knew she was infiltrating but was waiting for her to reveal herself. Nevertheless, her reaction to her insolence was quite striking. Grogar would have laughed too, but what he would find amusing was that pony bringing their own doom. Sarama´s statement, however, slightly sounded like an agreement. Glory couldn´t help but wonder if she shared some of the sentiments other unicorns in the mine had.
Finally, they had reached the highest tunnel, which meant that the next step of the plan would soon take place. She had been on high alert from the moment she let herself be captured by the diamond dogs, but right now Glory could feel the adrenaline slowly taking over her body and flowing through her veins while observing the rails ahead of her.
“And twenty more to the kart!” the dalmatian exclaimed enthusiastically while writing the number down. “which in total makes… eighty pieces!”
“That´s not bad for your first kart. But if you want to survive you´ll have to make more than that” Sarama stated firmly.
“Thank you, ma´am. I´ll try harder the next time.” answered Glory. “So now that my kart is full, I suppose I must change it, right?”
“Well, d´uh!” the golden retriever replied disrespetfully. “I know your pony brains are small and don´t allow much room for intellect, but even then, that´s such a stupid question!”
“Actually,” Argus shyly spoke. “what matters is the number of connections between neurons not the size of the-”
Poor Argus couldn´t finish his sentence as the golden retriever grabbed him by the shirt.
“SHUT UP YOU -”
His attitude changed fast when he saw Sarama´s threatening frown.
“I mean…” the golden retriever giggled nervously while putting Argus back on the ground. “I appreciate you want to inform us about stuff but don´t correct me in front of the slaves.” he said with clenched teeth and a forced smile while dusting off his shirt.
“Sure…” Argus said somewhat fearful.
Afterwards, he tipped his helmet to Sarama as a sign of gratitude. Sarama nodded and gave him a small but warm smile in return. Glory raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Unlike the cats, there was no sense of camaraderie nor respect for every dog. So seeing a high figure under Crunch´s rule, who was known for encouraging that kind of behaviour, not tolerating any kind of bullying towards a meeker and smaller dog was quite admirable. If she had such different ideas to Crunch´s, how did she end up as his foredog?
“Answering to your question, you´re correct.” Sarama said to Glory. “There are places for piece collection and kart change.”
“I see. And I suppose it must be that way, right?” Glory tried to walk towards the other tunnel, but Sarama quickly stepped on her way.
“Actually, we´re going to take another stop.” Sarama informed her calmly, but with menacing subtones.
Glory widened her eyes. The dogs looked at each other in confusion.
“Oh… And where are we going?”
“You´ll see. Follow me.”
Glory bit her lip nervously. This had all the earmarks of her being lured to a trap. She had to warn everypony. Seeing that Sarama and the dogs were backwards, she quickly ignited her horn.
Meanwhile, a few levels high above Glory, her comrades were tensely waiting to see Glory appear on the rails bellow them. They didn´t know whether it was due to anxiety or Glory was truly taking some time, but they felt like they had been waiting for ages. If it was the latter, there were two explanations: One, she wasn´t caught but is going through some obstacles; and two, she was caught. Either way, they hoped it was just psychological. All they knew was that time was running out.
Slowly and weakly, the crystals around them flickered, but their light was bright enough for the unicorns to see and leave stunned.
“Um… wasn´t the signal her getting out the tunnel?” Fizzy asked everypony. “Or she was supposed to do that and I misunderstood?”
“No chérie, you understood right.” answered Buttons. “However, she said that she would make the crystals to flicker twice if she was in trouble…” she widened her eyes in realization. “SACRE BLEUE, SHE NEEDS OUR HELP! WHAT DO WE DO NOW?!” she shook Gusty violently in panic.
Starswirl shushed her, reminding her they were not alone.
“Oh, sorry, my bad.” Buttons apologized.
“Why, tell the earth ponies to change to plan B, of course!” said Lancer.
“On it!” Buttons raised her hoof to her forehead while teleporting.
“No, no, no!” Starswirl shook his hooves. “Don´t use magic, they could hear us.”
“Dang it, I always forget!” Buttons hit her forehead. “Very well, earth pony method it is! I´ll probably take some time but I´ll go as fast as I can.”
Gusty and Lancer sighed.
“Now way, no how…” Gusty shrugged.
“Alright, I´ll see you in no time!” Buttons began to dig. “At least I can light the way…” she said while going down the hole she was making. The four unicorns that were left observed how she was going down.
“Hang on a little more, Glory! You´re doing great!” Lancer encouraged her, even though she couldn´t hear him.
As Glory´s message reached her comrades, the dogs noticed Glory wasn´t following them and was igniting her horn instead. As discreetly as she could, Sarama put her paws around the handles of her weapons, preparing to defend herself should the case require it.
“What are you doing?” she asked Glory.
Glory gasped softly while lighting off her horn.
“Oh, sorry ma´am. The thing is that I just I remembered seeing more crystals around this area and was checking to see if I was correct. Turns out I was right.”
“So? We can come back here later.” Sarama replied.
“Yeah, but… I don´t know where we´re going now, and if it´s very far, don´t you think it would be easier to do it now, so we save some time and energy on going back here again? I don´t say it for myself of course, I´m saying it for ye.” she smiled nervously.
Sarama narrowed her eyes.
“I appreciate your…” she looked away while thinking the next word. “Concern. But your kart is full, where would you put the new crystals?” she walked towards Glory. The closer she got, the more Glory´s ears dropped and pushed herself against the kart.
“I… I could do a product with them!”
Sarama raised her eyebrow.
“Wait, let me just show ye…” said Glory while taking a ruby.
She laid the crystal gems on the ground, took a deep breath and puffed, and ignited her horn. At first nothing happened, it was just Glory igniting her horn with closed eyes and sweating very hard. The golden retriever, the dalmatian and the bulldog held their laughter, thinking how pathetic the attempt was. Sarama and Argus on the other hoof (or should we say paw in this case), stared estranged, although the first was more skeptical and the second genuinely curious.
“Alright that´s en-”
But suddenly, the ruby slowly opened in sleeves, taking the shape of diamond. On the back of the ruby, she levitated two thin wires of the calcite and bent them, forming the fibula. The dogs observed the whole process in awe. When she was finished Glory fell to the ground, panting in exhaustion.
“Tadaa…” she smiled weakly. “It´s a brooch. And not just any brooch, a ruby brooch. Rubys are said to bring protection to its bearer, so it´s good for a leader.” she explained while pinning the brooch on Sarama´s chest´s left side. “What do ye think?”
Sarama grabbed her cape to observe Glory´s brooch in more detail.
“Hm… It´s good. Not a gift suitable for our great leader Crunch though-”
“Actually, it was for ye.”
“For me? Why would you give this to me as a gift?”
“I already explained it.”
Sarama winked stunned.
“Ooh, what a brown-nosing slave…” the dalmatian whispered to her workmates.
“Okay, are you flattering me?” Sarama asked Glory angrily. “Because flattery won´t make me favour you. In fact, it achieves the contrary!”
“No, no! That wasn´t my intention. I gave it to you because you were the one asking. And technically, you´re a leader, right?” she smiled nervously.
Sarama´s face indicated Glory that her last words resonated in her mind. Sarama stared at the brooch again. Despite its imperfections, there was something beautiful about it. It was very simple and barely had any decorations, but her reflection on it was clearer than crystalline water. Sarama dropped her ears while staring at herself, which Glory took notice.
“Are ye alright, ma´am?” she asked estranged.
“Huh?” Sarama asked in a whimper. “Oh!” She shook her head to return to her usual stoic and detached attitude. “Yes, I was just examining for imperfections, which has many. For example, the faces are asymmetrical, and the edges are too sharp.” she approached the brooch to Glory so she would appreciate the mistakes better.
“Ye´re right! Maybe if ye just let me fix-” Glory tried to take the brooch out of Sarama, but she put her paw backwards.
“You will, but later. Right now, we must go.”
“But what about the other crystals, Sarama?” the dalmatian asked confused.
“I hate to say it, but I agree with the slave. It´s easier that she does products so we can carry them now and not come back later, don´t you think?” the bulldog commented.
“I appreciate your input, but we are leaving. We cannot stay here.”
“Sarama´s right guys, perhaps-” Argus tried to support his superior, since he understood she was pretending. But as always, he was interrupted by his workmates.
“Sarama, what´s going on?” the golden retriever crossed his arms. “You´re always talking about efficiency, but right now you want to take the time-wasting way?”
“Like I said, we have to move.” she said firmly, yet also desperate to make them understand there was a danger. “There´s no time to explain.”
“Geeze, how dramatic are these dimondians…”
Sarama growled furiously while approaching the golden retriever, making him put his paws up on defence.
“Do not insult my land nor my family!”
“I´m sorry. It was a joke, I wasn´t serious…” he laughed nervously.
“Dimondians?” Glory whispered to herself in wonder.
Suddenly, some soil fell on her nose, causing her to sneeze. She frowned estranged, wondering where that soil came from. After noticing more soil falling, she looked up and saw a small hole forming on the ceiling. She widened her eyes in horror when she realized what was causing that hole.
“No, no, no. Stop! Stop!” she implored quietly.
Though still small, the hole got big enough to allow Glory to see who was coming down. At first, she only saw two blue eyes in the darkness, which after approaching to the light, they were revealed to belong to Buttons.
“Glory?” Buttons said a bit confused, but also happy to see her safe. “Don´t worry, I´m warning the earth ponies, but apparently I must have gotten the wrong-”
Glory put her hoof on her mouth own mouth to silence Buttons. Then, she pointed at the dogs. Buttons bit her lip anxiously and in relief at the same time. Miraculously, none of the dogs became aware of her presence. Not even Sarama, which was the most welcomed surprise. Instead, they were involved in what seemed to be a heated argument.
“You think she´s dangerous, is that it?” the dalmatian asked Sarama. “I´m sorry, but she doesn´t seem that dangerous to me.”
“You don´t understand, there´s been recent news…” Sarama said frustrated, both because they were not listening to her and because she had to deliver the news with Glory around, which she tried to avoid at all costs. However, there wasn´t other way to make them obey.
“What news?” the bulldog asked.
Sarama took a deep breath.
“The Wind Warrior has defeated Katrina. And it´s likely she´s coming here for Majesty.”
Buttons slipped from the tunnel. Thankfully, Glory had a quick reflex on creating a crystal for her to hold on to, leaving Buttons hanging in the air instead of crashing and probably breaking some bones. With Glory´s help, she tried to crawl back to the tunnel.
“Aaah… So everything is about that.” the golden retriever nodded his head.
Sarama widened her eyes surprised.
“Wait, you knew? How?”
“We bumped into some colleagues that had just captured a cat and told us everything.”
“Wait what? When did that happen?” Argus asked shocked. “Because I don´t remember that.”
“Yeah, well…” the dalmatian scratched the back of her neck. “We sent you to look for some sticks, so you left us alone when that happened…”
“And none of you informed me of this?!” Argus asked angry.
“Hey, we didn´t tell you for a good reason. If we did, you would have been freaking out the whole way.” the bulldog justified for himself and his friends.
“Well, he would have had a good reason!” Sarama sided with Argus. “Didn´t you stop to think for a moment that the Wind Warrior could use you to get to Crunch?”
The golden retriever, the dalmatian and the bulldog widened their eyes in realization. In spite of still listening carefully to the conversation, Argus was also aware of his surroundings, especially after Sarama delivered the news. Consequently, he was the only one to realize what was happening in the background.
“Um… Guys…” he shyly called them.
But once again, he was ignored. His workmates were still thinking on an answer for Sarama.
“Well, uh…” the golden retriever nervously grabbed the collar of his shirt. “But that hasn´t been the case, has it?” he retorted with a challenging yet still scaredy tone. “Look, you might be our superior, but at the end of the day, Crunch is the one who gives orders, not you.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Sarama´s anger grew further, causing the golden retriever to shrink in fear.
“Guys…” Argus called them again, getting a bit more desperate.
“What I mean is that you act like you´re the boss here when in reality Crunch is.”
“I act like I´m the boss because Crunch named me his foredog, what do you expect?! That I´d sit around doing nothing?!”
“Guys…” Argus became upset.
“Pff! Please. Don´t act like you don´t know what I´m talking about. We all know that you secretly disobey Crunch´s orders and use your own criteria instead. You could even say that you manipulate him to do your own bidding! And let´s be real, the only reason he made you foredog is because you two were arranged to-”
“GUYS!” Argus exploded in rage, finally getting everydog´s attention.
Once they were looking at him, he pointed at the unicorns. Glory and Buttons widened their eyes in horror when their eyes met with the dogs´. In a matter of seconds, the dogs drew their weapons and circled them while Sarama ran to the rails to warn all the dogs.
“ALERT, ALERT, EVERYDOG! INTRUDERS! INTRUDERS! SEARCH THE WHOLE MINES! AND MAKE SURE NO SLAVE IS HIDING THEM!”
Panickily, every dog in the mines abandoned their usual tasks. Some ran in formations to look for the ponies in every corner of the mines while others inspected the slaves by inspecting their carts or interrogating them violently. Naturally, both the unicorns and earth ponies witnessed horrified the chaos that was unfolding. In fact, in the earth ponies´ case, a dog was trying to get information of an innocent unicorn by grabbing her by the tail and shaking her just beneath them.
“Where are they?! Did you know about this?!” the dog asked livid.
“No! I´m just as surprised as you, I swear! I´ve done nothing wrong!” the unicorn exclaimed helpless.
“Don´t lie to me!” the dog shook her.
The earth ponies watched the event, feeling very sorry for the pony in spite of not being the same species as them.
“It may not be what we agreed on, but I think that´s our cue.” Shady broke the silence.
“Darn right it is!” Magic Star said in agreement as she took a potion in each hoof. The other earth ponies prepared for combat as well.
“Let me go, please!” the unicorn begged the dog.
“Not until you tell me!”
Suddenly, the unicorn noticed a pair of bright yellow and brown hooves and another one of completely brown ones grabbing the dogs´ feet and pulling them backwards, causing him to fall and consequently, letting of the unicorn, who ran away terrified.
“What the?” the dog asked confused.
Suddenly, a hole opened on the floor and from it, came out three earth ponies, most specifically Alonzo, Knightshade and Magic Star.
“EARTH PONIES SHALL CONQUER ALL!” Knightshade screamed excitedly, but his enthusiasm somewhat subsided when he saw his fellow earth ponies´ confused expressions. “What? The plan was to pose as skirmishers, right?” he softly asked, both confused and ashamed.
Though appalled at first, the dog roared in laughter once he had processed the situation.
“So,” he wiped off a tear. “Insignificant earth pony skirmishers? Ha ha ha!” he said while getting up. This shall be easy then.” he drew his sword. “CHAAARGE!” he called the dogs nearest him to battle.
Magic Star threw a potion that caused an explosion and a brief blue smoke. The dogs coughed or rubbed their irritated eyes. Once the smoke cleared, they observed that each earth pony had spread into three distant spots. In response, the dogs divided into three groups to fight them. Despite being outnumbered, the three earth ponies managed to fight masterfully with their respective weapons; swords in Alonzo´s and Knightshade´s case and potions in Magic Star´s. Although, they also had help from Shady and Posey, who created holes in which the dogs could fell in groups and each dog on top of other. The two earth ponies bumped hoofs with a smile after witnessing their work.
Sarama observed the riot from above with an arched eyebrow. She couldn´t appreciate the characteristics of these new combatants, but from what she heard from one of them screaming, they were earth ponies. Though still possible, it was too much of a coincidence that they appeared just when they busted two unicorns.
“It can´t be. They´re allies?” she wondered aloud. Then, she gasped in realization. “Of course! They had to get in Marenada somehow.”
She noticed at the other side of the rails a pair of dogs paralyzed in confusion and fear.
“Get back up for your fellow soldiers bellow! And search for more rebels!” Sarama ordered them in a firm yet also comforting tone.
Seeing they were still too scared to move, Sarama closed her eyes, inflated and deflated her chest. Receiving her message, the dogs did the same. Sarama accompanied them in their breaths until their body allowed them to move. Sarama nodded and smiled slightly as she watched them go. Then, she continued supervising.
Meanwhile, Glory and Buttons were still kept on a circle. The dogs advanced towards them until Buttons´ and Glory´s backs clashed against each other in an attempt to get away from the spears as much as possible. The golden retriever laughed at their struggle.
“What are you going to do now, little unicorns?” he tauntingly asked them.
In looking at Buttons, Glory saw the stick she carried, giving her an idea. She smirked back at the dogs to puzzle them. Then, she throw the stick far away from herself and Buttons. As expected, every dog, with the exception of Sarama, happily chased it. Sarama´s ears perked up when she heard their barks.
“Hey! What are you doing?! Come back!” Sarama called them out.
But none of the dogs listened, causing her to growl in frustration. To make matters worse, just when she redirected her sight on to the unicorns, they had already teleported away. She sighed upset before running to her subordinates.
In reality, Glory and Buttons were still in the same place. They were against a wall, using an invisibility spell, having threw themselves some soil beforehoof so Sarama wouldn´t smell them. Once her steps sounded farther, they opened their eyes and observed how she tried to get the stick away from the dogs.
“Let go!” she said while pulling the stick out of the bulldog´s mouth.
Judging from the sight, Glory and Buttons were certain Sarama would take some time to get the dogs back to reality. After turning their head back to the rails, they noticed a scared unicorn hiding under a cart. They looked at each other and nodded. Slowly and carefully, they crawled to the cart and got on it, scaring the unicorn even more with the noise.
“Eh? Huh? What was that?”
“Hey.” Buttons peeped her head out in front of the unicorn.
“GAH!” yelled the unicorn.
Inmediately, Buttons covered his mouth and shushed him.
“Please, don´t be scared, we´re here to free you.”
“With the earth ponies?” the unicorn asked mistrustful.
“Yes, yes! We helped them before and now they are helping us.”
The unicorn´s nerves started going down. He frowned in curiosity and confusion.
“Who are you?”
“It´s a very long story… But on short, we´re rebels.”
“Listen.” Glory joined Buttons. “Our leader has been captured and we know Crunch is planning on delivering her to Grogar. Can you lend us your cart?”
The unicorn looked away in thought. He nodded with a slight smile. Glory and Buttons returned the smile.
“Thank you.” Glory said to him.
Buttons looked up and made a signal to Lancer, Gusty, Fizzy and Starswirl, who watched in stress the situation. When they saw Buttons, they sighed in relief. Afterwards, they ignited their horns.
“It´s easy to get to the dungeons. If you follow the rails, you´ll get to a gate in which there are stairs, and those stairs lead to many parts of the castle, including the dungeons. The door to the dungeons is very recognizable, you´ll see.” the unicorn instructed Glory as she took off the harness off the unicorn and put it on her back.
“Understood, thank you so much.” Glory nodded. “Is everypony there?”
“Positive!” answered Fizzy while they appeared right next to Buttons.
For their misfortune, just when they were about to leave, Sarama had already made the last dog, Argus, recover his conscience with a few soft slaps; which allowed her to finally go back to observing the rails. She gasped when she noticed Gusty.
“The Wind Warrior! Don´t let them get away!”
Gusty noticed the dogs running towards them.
“Oh no, they noticed us!”
“Move Glory, move, move!” Lancer hit the cart.
Glory whimpered and immediately started running away.
“Thanks for letting us your cart!” Fizzy waved to the unicorn with a grateful smile.
The unicorn smiled in return, but some growls quickly erased that smile from his face.
“Uh oh…” he said after looking up and seeing the dogs.
Lancer lit his horn the moment they entered the tunnel. The first thing they saw were bats in front of them. They yelled in terror while ducking to avoid getting hit on the face by the bats.
“These ponies have to work in caves filled with bats?” asked an indignant Buttons.
“Uuuh, I don´t think bats are what we should be worried about…” Starswirl said horrified before pointing at the pack of dogs running towards them at the horizon.
Anxiously, the ponies clenched their teeth. And as if that weren´t enough, right behind them were following Sarama and the dogs that `captured´ Glory with a malicious smile. Apparently, they forced the unicorn that helped them before to chase the unicorns.
“Sorry!” he apologized.
Every unicorn, with the exception of Glory since she had her eyes on the rails, stared at Gusty, who raised an eyebrow confused.
“Why are you all staring at me?” she asked.
“Well, you´re the one who comes up with all the ideas in these situations…” Glory explained.
“Huh, I didn´t think about it before, but now that you say it, maybe you´re right!” Gusty answered in realization. She scratched her cheek while thinking up an idea. The perfect idea popped up in her mind when she saw Fizzy´s canteen. She smirked mischievously. “Hey, feeling for a round two of whac-a-dog? she asked Fizzy.
Fizzy gasped and widened her eyes. Then, she laughed maliciously.
“You said it!” she replied while lifting her canteen up.
The pack of dogs stopped yelling for war, when some of their combatants were crashed against the wall due a stream of water that trapped them.
“What the?” one of them asked.
Suddenly, the rest were lifted up by a tornado, making way for the unicorns´ cart.
“With your permissiooon!” Gusty teased them, despite struggling to keep a heavy load afloat and sweating.
Once they passed through, Gusty dropped the dogs in front of the dogs´ cart. Sarama widened her eyes and gasped.
“Stop!” she ordered the unicorn.
The unicorn slowed down just before he could get to the dogs. Sarama got off the cart to check and aid the injured dogs.
“Are you all okay?” she asked them.
“Well… We´ve been better.” one of them replied.
“Haw haw!” Fizzy laughed in a taunting melody when Sarama raised her eyes.
Sarama growled but quickly shifted her focus back on helping the dogs. The four dogs accompanying her had other ideas, though.
“What are you doing?!” the golden retriever yelled at her. “They´re getting away!”
“We´ll soon get back to them.” responded Sarama. “But first, we must get your fellow guards out of the way to avoid casualties. Besides, what just happened made me think of a better way to-”
“See our point?!” the dalmatian pointed an accusatory claw at Sarama. “You only obey to your own wishes and not Crunch´s. Crunch would much rather have us continuing the chase!”
“Well, I really prefer Sarama´s option over yours and Crunch´s!” one of the injured dogs replied.
“Of course you do, because you´re a coward!” the bulldog accused the injured dog. “A true soldier doesn´t mind giving their life for Crunch. Compared to him, our lives are irrelevant. The only way we can get any value is by submitting ourselves to Crunch´s will.” he clenched his fist with as much passion as the speech he was giving had.
The golden retriever and the dalmatian nodded their heads, very moved by their comrade´s speech. Sarama, the injured dogs and Argus, however, blinked their eyes puzzled.
“Let´s all be honest, the reason why you don´t understand is because you´re all Dimondians and favour Sarama blindly, just like the dogs in the military!” said the golden retriever.
“Mate, half of us in this group are Caninians like you!” another injured dog responded back angrily.
“I´m also Caninian and I agree with Sarama here…” Argus said in support of the dog.
“Shut up, Argus!” the dalmatian shouted at him. “No dog asked.”
“Okay.” Sarama said calmly, despite being on the verge of losing her nerves. “I know we have our differences, but if we just put aside our biases and negotiate-”
“There´s no time for negotiating, Sarama! In fact, we even have less thanks to you and your altruism.” the golden retriever said the last word in spite and mockery. “But we´re gonna make the most of it.” he put his sword on the unicorn´s neck. “If you don’t start running right now I´m going to cut your throat and then your family´s!”
The poor unicorn whimpered and obeyed. Not wanting to take part on that reckless plan, Argus jumped off the waggon. Between Sarama and the dogs that were already at the side of the rails, they managed to get every remaining dog to safety.
“LONG LIVE CRUUUUNCH!” the bulldog cried as their cart disappeared into the void.
“Geeze, what´s wrong with them?!” a dog asked upset after massaging his forehead.
“That´s what I´ve been asking myself ever since I was assigned with them…” said Argus plainly.
“Is everydog ok?” Sarama asked concerned.
“Unfortunately, no.” a dog nodded. “Some of us have broken bones but there are others that can help.”
“Perfect. Then listen carefully, I think I have a pretty good idea of where they are going…”
Between the property damage caused by dogs crashing the mine´s walls and other materials in the mines due to the unicorns´ magical defences; the dozens of formations of dogs pursuing and attacking from every side of the cart; the thrown sticks, jewels and crystals flying away as a form of distraction; and the slaves running away to avoid getting hurt, the six unicorns were causing quite a stir everywhere they went.
“I´m so sorry to ask this, but are we there yet?” Fizzy asked, anxious and exhausted at the same time.
“For once, non taken.” Lancer said before throwing some gems away. “I´d really like to know the answer to that question as well.”
“I would gladly check but I can´t if I have to drive the cart.” Glory lamented. “That spell would require me lots of concentration, which I can´t do if I have to keep an eye on the way.”
“Maybe I could be of some help?” Starswirl suggested somewhat insecure but genuinely wanting to help. “It´s been very long since I last pulled one of these but perhaps I have some muscle memory.”
“You sure you want to?” Gusty asked him. “I know you want to help, but we wouldn´t want you to have a hard time reliving a bad experience.”
“Honestly, that´s bellow on my list of priorities right now. I don´t mind, really.”
“Fine by me. But you better be fast running because we´re getting some company back…” Buttons said worried.
She pointed at the coming cart of dogs. They laughed menacingly the closer they got to them. With a smirk, the dalmatian threw an arrow at them. Buttons and Starswirl whimpered, since they were the ones at the back of the cart. Without the need of speaking, Glory and Starswirl synchronized in exchanging places. In the meantime, Buttons stopped the arrow thanks to her shield.
“AAAGH PLEASE BE NEAR, PLEASE BE NEAR!” Fizzy cried upset.
Glory closed her eyes before igniting her horn. Slowly, she was getting more control over her magic, but she still needed time to do these new spells. In the meantime, the unicorns kept with their assigned tasks. Whenever they could, Lancer and Buttons shot magical beams at the dogs, but they were good at avoiding them. Although they still managed to do so, Gusty and Fizzy were starting to get tired, so their attacks were less effective. However, that didn´t mean they were less impressing for Starswirl, particularly Gusty´s. From time to time, he glimpsed at Gusty after she threw some dogs away. He knew he had to have his eyes on the front but there were times it was irresistible not to gaze at Gusty for some time. Eventually, he had his reality check.
“HEY HEY! WAKE UP!” Fizzy waved her hoof in front of him. “PONIES AT THE FRONT! PONIES AT THE FRONT!”
Starswirl turned his head back to the front. He braked when he noticed he was too near to ponies who still had to move. As an instinct, he braked down. Thankfully, they were able to get out safe and sound.
“Sorry!” Starswirl apologized to those two ponies while going back to running.
“I know you like staring at Gusty, but I don´t think now´s the moment to do that.”
Starswirl frowned, upset that Fizzy would say that out loud; and blushed embarrassed, hoping Gusty didn´t hear that. Fortunately for him, she was far too busy to do so. However, she turned to them just a few seconds afterwards. She widened her eyes surprised when she saw him blushing.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, causing Starswirl to open his eyes wide open like plates.
“Yeah yeah! It´s just that the effort is causing my cheeks to turn red.” he laughed nervously. “Which brings me a very important question, how is Glory doing back there?” he asked to change the subject and remove the focus of attention from himself.
“I´m done.” Glory answered. “I´ve noticed that the farther I am, the more difficult for me is to detect a gem in there. And this time it was easier for me, which means we can´t be that far.”
“That makes two of us!” the golden retriever exclaimed triumphantly.
Every unicorn widened their eyes horrified at how some of the previously defeated dogs were helping to push the cart and thus, make it go faster. The poor unicorn forced to push the cart was now hanging on the cart.
“HELP MEEE!” he begged them.
“Girls, cover me!” Lancer told Glory and Buttons.
The unicorns took their shields and put them over Lancer. Meanwhile, the stallion used his sword to cut the chain, picked the unicorn up, and took the harness off his back. Once he was free, the unicorn gave Lancer a tight hug as a sign of gratitude. Though taken off guard, Lancer patted his back.
“Now this will be just a second!” he told the unicorn while lighting his horn.
The unicorn didn´t even have time to arch his eyebrow before reappearing in a different place.
“AH! What the?” he said while holding his chest.
“We´ll explain one day, I promise!” Lancer answered him.
“Um… Starswirl… They´re getting closer…” Buttons nervously informed Starswirl.
“I´m going as fast as I can, I swear!” he said anxious.
“But that´s not fair!” Fizzy complained. “We´re five and they´re like twenty or more! It´s clearly not playing in our advantage.”
Gusty looked at her horn and then frowned determined.
“Perhaps I can remedy that…”
Every unicorn glanced at Gusty.
Meanwhile, the dogs were getting closer to the unicorns´ cart.
“I got you now…” the golden retriever smirked. He opened his canteen to drink some water and then turned to his comrades. “Witness meee!” he cried boastingly.
“Witness!” the dalmatian yelled in response.
“Witnesses!” said the bulldog.
The golden retriever got on the front edge of the minecart, calculating the distance between the two carts. When he felt he was near enough, he jumped on the unicorns. But since he was too focused on his grandiosity, he didn´t notice Gusty appearing bellow him. Supported by a wind, she pushed their cart combined with a strong wind to create a shockwave. As expected, the cart shot off, leaving both the dogs and the enslaved unicorns shocked.
“Did you all see that?” the unicorn Lancer rescued asked his workmates.
“Buh bye!” Gusty waved goodbye at the dogs teasingly before teleporting back to the cart, making them growl frustrated.
Every unicorn hung on tight the cart due to the high speed it was going at. Even Starswirl had his back against the front of the cart.
“Sorry everpony. It was the only idea I had in my mind.” Gusty apologized when she came back.
“Noooo prooobleeem!” said Starswirl to comfort her.
“Good job, Gusty! That was impressive.” Fizzy offered her hoof slightly so Gusty would strike it with hers.
Buttons sighed.
“Despite going at the speed of light, I hope we won´t have more problems for the rest of the-”
“Who said you got rid of me?!” the golden retriever peaked his head.
Buttons, Glory and Lancer teleported back from the shock, giving the golden retriever the opportunity to get into the cart. Apparently, he managed to hold on the cart despite Gusty´s trick.
“Okay, so it´s not over yet…” Buttons stretched her forelegs. “You guys keep on holding tight. I´ll deal with him.”
Lancer and Glory widened their eyes. The golden retriever burst out laughing.
“You against me?!” the golden retriever asked teasingly. “Ha! I´d like to see that!”
“Buttons.” Glory concernedly placed her hoof over her shoulder. “Are ye su-”
Just before Glory could finish her phrase, Buttons began fighting the golden retriever physically without the need of any weapon. Even the golden retriever was caught off guard.
“Nevermind.” said Glory.
“Look! I see a big gate in there!” Starswirl informed the others.
“That must be it!” exclaimed Gusty.
“Hang on Buttons, we´re almost there!” Fizzy cheered her.
“No problem!” Buttons said in response while battling the golden retriever.
“Is that all you´ve got? Cause it feels like I´m fighting a puny stupid fluffy clown!” the golden retriever teased her.
“Well, this clown is about to bring the thunder!” Buttons pushed down the rear edge of the cart while holding the golden retriever by the back of his shirt, leveraging the presence of metal signs to hit the back of his head.
“Ooh! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! OW!” the golden retriever yelled in pain. However, when he had the chance, he used his tail to move Buttons towards him so he could grab her. “Your turn!” he raised her to the height of the signs.
“AH!” Buttons widened her eyes. Now she was the one being hit by the signs, but in the face and not in the back of the head. “Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!”
The golden retriever laughed in revenge.
“Why. Are. There. So. Many. Signs?!” Buttons asked angrily.
She shouted in terror when she saw an arch, but luckily, Fizzy pulled her tail down before she could get hit. Also, the fact that they were now going down an incline helped too. Since the rails were a little bit bumpy, the cart was jumping up and down repeatedly. Though uncomfortable, it played an advantage for Buttons, as the dog was jumping back and forth. She took Lancer´s shield and let physics do the rest of the work.
“Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!” the dog cried in pain while repeatedly crushing against the shield.
When they were going up the rails, Gusty noticed that the dogs were arriving to the incline. Inspired by Buttons´ trick, she took her shield.
“Say hello to your friends on my behalf!” she said before hitting the golden retriever with the shield and a gust of wind.
The golden retriever yelled while flying away. The other dogs joined in his screaming when they realized their comrade was coming towards them. He caused their cart to go away backwards when he crashed against them.
“CUUURSE YOUU WIND WARRIOOOOOR!” the dogs shouted in chorus.
The unicorns laughed victoriously. Starswirl gasped when he saw a fence getting closer to him.
“Hang on tight!” he said before disappearing.
Unlike Starswirl, the rest of the unicorns didn´t have enough time to respond. The cart had already crashed against the fence, sending them flying away. They grunted when they hit the rocky floor. Starswirl ran to aid them.
“Are you all okay?” he asked concerned while offering a hoof to everypony.
“Yeah.” Gusty responded when she grabbed his hoof. “Although, I should be the one asking you that. If it wasn´t for the harness, you would have ended up like those dogs or worse!” she giggled nervously.
“It´s not worth worrying about that, really.” he reassured her.
“He´s right. We have more important issues than that.” Glory pointed at the gate.
Lancer sighed in relief.
“Uh, finally!” he exclaimed while he and every unicorn ran to the gate. “With everything we´ve been going through, I never thought-”
He was interrupted by an arrow that almost hit him from behind. Luckily, it ended up nailed against the wall and not any part of his body. Afterwards, many dogs surrounded them with their spears. Among them was Argus, the papillon dog. Then, through the gates came Sarama.
“Tsk, tsk.” she shook her head cockily. “You didn´t think you would take me out of the equation that easily, did you?”
The unicorns dropped their ears and clenched their teeth in fear.