Rarity could not believe this was happening. She had followed all the rules, even listened to Spike's advice in dealing with them but the Dogs just refused to listen to any reason. After being pulled down she heard Spike yell that he was going for help and would send a message to get the guards on their way. Now, here she was trying not to cry and wait out the time stuck pulling a cart. "Oh, I hope they get here soon."
Ponyville outpost.
Mac was sitting in his office thinking about the new squad members. All 12 of the strange adults with no marks (who the town had taken to calling the blanks) showed up with applications and health forms to join the guard. Their applications explained that they were sufferers of a strange illness that, while not contagious, had made it impossible for them to find their marks. Mac had been ready to admit them for training when Ditsy came out of her office. As odd as the part time mail mare was, her appearance and behavior masked a sharp mind. Why she never used it outside of guard duty confused her squad mates to no end. She had taken one look at the new ponies and had them all in her office before they or Mac could blink. He could still remember the conversation.
Flashback
Ditsy Do; squad leader of the Ponyville garrison and local mail mare (walking disaster); was staring down the 12 new anomalies in town as best she could. She knew they were each under a heavy illusion but had no idea why. Because they were not causing any trouble she would have left them alone normally, but she was not going to let new ponies join the ranks without knowing if they were safe or not. "Okay folks, I know your all disguised . If you want to join the guard, I better get an explanation now!"
Mac was surprised. He had no idea she could see through illusions. The ponies (Ghouls) looked at one another before nodding the room suddenly seemed very small with 12 gray colored red eyed walking corpses in it "You see ma'am its like this."
Flashback end
The story of those poor souls still gave him the willies. Still, the fact that they wanted to join the guard to protect those who still had a chance to live despite what they had gone through was awe inspiring to him. While Mac was pondering this, Spike ran through the door "Help! The diamond dogs in the hills kidnapped Rarity"
Mac was alert in an instant. They had never had problems with the pack before, but the alpha was getting old. Oh he hoped that idiot Rover had not somehow gained power. Mac had a team consisting of himself, Bulk, Blossom, Clamper, Scrapper and Pixy ready and on the move in under 10 minutes. It would still take a bit for them to reach the best entrance to the tunnels though. Thirty minutes later, they were entering the tunnels proper after some searching they managed to find where Rarity was. They just had to follow the constant noise.
Rarity had snapped. She was currently trying to impale Rover with an amalgamation of all the gems she had collected, none of which they had allowed her to claim. She had come here hoping to meet them due to an old deal she had found. Diamond Dogs and gem hunting ponies used to work together quite often with an equal split of the gems found between each individual. Rarity had been angry when the dogs made her do most of the work but she was used to doing all of it anyway on her hunts. However, when they tried to take all of the gems without giving her a cut, the last bit of her normal behavior went out the window.
The squad charged in Mac pinned Rarity while his companions took Rover's minions into custody. "Miss Rarity, I know yer upset and ya have every right ta be but killing him will just cause more trouble than it's worth."
Rarity was spitting mad, but as she was trying to calm down. Rover tried to jump them, Mac kicked his teeth out on reflex. Once he made sure Rarity was not going to go nuts again, he proceeded to drag Rover to his minions and make sure they were tied up correctly. Not noticing the eyes of a shocked mare on him "I never realized how brave Macintosh was. He was always strong but..." Rarity had spoken with Midnight about the nobles on several occasions and while her view of them had dimmed, she still held out hope of finding her prince.
While they were cleaning up, an absolutely ancient dog arrived "What's all the noise for?" This was Beethoven, the elder of the pack and, despite Rover's many challenges, still the alpha.
Rarity was still angry but she was not going to take it out on someone who looked as old as or older than Granny Smith. "Well, you see, sir, these ruffians decided to kidnap me and ignored anything I said, even when I enacted the gem hunter's treaty."
Beethoven just face pawed. The word idiots could be heard among his long suffering growl. "I apologize for the behavior of my pack mates. In accordance with the treaty, all gems found go the wronged party. Ma'am if you should ever like to go gem hunting in our territory again, look me up and i would be glad to find some of our younger pack members who would be happy to work with you." - here he turned to look at the 3 wrong doers- "I would normally ask that they be left in my custody but, as this is far from their first idiotic stunt, I think some time in the Ponyville jail house would do them some good, especially considering they have to go through re-training again afterwards."
The 3 were lead away and Rarity managed to convince Mac to help her pull the cart back to town. Once the whole mess was handled, Rarity still got what she wanted and Midnight was able to get a message from the Princess to Beethoven the pack would soon regain its honor. Even if they have to put the 3 schmuck-heads through re-training again, if they could reclaim their spot in the guard, the elders considered it a fair trade