//------------------------------// // Part II // Story: Dog's Best Friends // by Scyphi //------------------------------// “…I’m just saying, why would anyone ever need a rock farm, let alone all of Equestria?” Gallus remarked skeptically as he examined a chunk of rock. “I suppose they must need all the rocks they…er…grow for something,” Woofus reasoned as he sorted through some other rocks they had dug up. “Yeah, but I’m just at a loss as to why, and I can’t seem to get anyone to tell me,” Gallus mumbled before dumping the clump into his bag with a sigh. “Silly Gallus!” Yona declared faithfully, checking off an item on their list. “Ponies grow rocks so to build mountains!” She pointed her hoof at such a mountain standing on the horizon. “I’m…pretty sure it’s not the ponies who make the mountains, Yona,” Gallus mumbled. Yona stomped her hoof in disapproval. “Yes it is!” she declared. “Unicorn ponies make magic, pegasus ponies make clouds, and earth ponies make mountains!” She again jabbed her hoof at the distant mountain. Woofus frowned, uncertain. “I…thought earth ponies grew plants or something like that…” he mumbled uncertainly, knowing he was no expert. “Maybe we should ask an earth pony…like Sandbar!” Gallus snorted as he bent down to scoop up another rock from the Diamond Dog. “Well, in case you hadn’t noticed, Sandy’s not here to ask right now. So unless he’s going to just suddenly drop by, you’ll have to wait and pose that question to him on the way back.” That was when Sandbar abruptly dropped out of the sky with a yell, landing in Yona’s thick fur before rolling off and flopping onto the ground with a groan. “Greetings, Sandbar pony!” Yona welcomed cheerily, completely unfazed as Gallus and Woofus both spun around to stare. “Hi, Yona,” Sandbar mumbled, off-kilter as he shakily attempted to stand up again. “Head spinning…talk later…” Silverstream then swooped down into the middle of the group in a complete tizzy. “Others! East! Diamond Dogs! Spears! Help! Go! Must!” she gasped in bursts as she gulped down air at the same time, trying to soothe her burning lungs. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down, Sil!” Gallus urged anxiously, not following but clearly seeing it was urgent. “Take a deep breath, then, using complete sentences, tell us what the heck’s going on!” Silverstream paused to draw in a comically deep inhale before trying again. “We were attacked by Diamond Dogs! They got Smolder and Ocellus!” “Diamond Dogs?” Gallus repeated in shock, exchanging bewildered expressions with Yona. However, Woofus’s expression was one of dread. “Oh no,” he mumbled darkly, and without waiting, abruptly about faced and raced off. “Wait, Woofus!” Gallus called after him. He started to give chase, the others following. “What’s going on?” “Just follow me!” Woofus commanded as he ran. “I will explain later!” “Yona hopes he does,” Yona mumbled as they galloped off to help their friends. “Because Yona has no clue what going on.” In the meantime, things hadn’t gone so well for Ocellus and Smolder. When the ground collapsed out from under them, it dropped them into a tunnel right in front of a group of Diamond Dogs. From the armor, they were likely some kind of patrol, but whoever they were, they didn’t take kindly to intruders. Ocellus and Smolder both tried to escape, but they were caught unprepared. Though Ocellus was slippery to restrain thanks to her changeling nature, one dog pinned her by throwing himself atop of her and knocking her head in the process, stunning her. Smolder, meanwhile, fought back like any good dragon would. But being outnumbered, she was eventually overpowered too, realizing she probably should’ve made use of her wings and flown away when she had the chance like Silverstream. Now, tied up back to back on the surface next to the cave-in, what stuff they had with them confiscated, and under guard by three of the Diamond Dogs while the fourth went looking for Sandbar and Silverstream and the fifth to fetch additional help, the changeling and dragon could only sit, wait, and look for some way out of this mess. Smolder kept wrinkling her nose. “These guys smell worse than Woofus first did,” she observed aloud. “Ooh,” Ocellus mumbled, the back of her head still throbbing. “You okay?” Smolder asked, trying to twist around to see her friend. “I think so,” Ocellus replied. “I have quite a headache, though…I’m not bleeding, am I?” Smolder tried to get a good look. “Not that I can tell…but I bet you’re going to have a wicked good bump back there.” “No talking!” one of the Diamond Dogs commanded, brandishing his spear at them. “Oh, put a sock in it!” Smolder snapped back. “Smolder,” Ocellus hissed, not wanting to make their situation worse. “I’ll talk as much as I want to, Ocellus!” Smolder persisted before looking back at the Diamond Dog, moving his spear to focus on her. Her eyes took in the gemstone spearhead. “Hey, wait—is that diamond you’ve made the head of that thing out of?” “Yeah,” the Diamond Dog growled, poking Smolder in the snout with it. “And you keep this up, you just might get a taste of it too!” Smolder grinned cheekily. “Well, why didn’t you just say so?” She then took a hearty bite right out of the diamond spearhead. She crunched on it thoughtfully for a moment while the dog stared at her, flabbergast. “Mm…you haven’t aged this diamond very well. You know, it’d be more resilient if you did.” “Smolder, please don’t give them tips on how to better assault us,” Ocellus muttered. Smolder swallowed. “That’s okay, all this digging in the dirt has worked up my appetite anyway,” she smirked as the dog helplessly regarded the now half a spearhead he held. But further antagonizing of their guards was halted when their other friends appeared, running onto the scene. “Hey, let them go, you creeps!” Sandbar shouted as they ran up. “There you all are, what kept you?” Smolder shouted back at them. The guards didn’t back off though, and instead encircled their prisoners, holding their spears (whole or not) threateningly at their throats. “No closer, or else!” one of the three shouted, and the fourth was seen hurrying onto the scene to assist. As this still left the dogs outnumbered, they slowed but didn’t halt their approach…until Woofus hurried ahead to stand between the two sides, motioning for both to stop. His presence clearly surprised the guards. “Sir Woofus!” one of them declared in surprise. Silverstream’s eyes went wide. “They know him?” she whispered to her friends, stunned. “Stand down!” Woofus ordered the other Diamond Dogs. “They’re with me, and they meant no harm!” But the other Diamond Dogs only looked to one another, clearly conflicted. “Sir, with respect, they caused a tunnel collapse, and we already have standing orders to capture and detain any potential troublemakers, therefore, with your departure…” Woofus sighed, nodding. “I see,” he remarked, slowly closing the gap between them, with the others cautiously following. “Then if you agree that you will not harm them or any of my cohorts here, we will voluntarily surrender and ask to come before the administrative staff, so to work it out with them.” “Wait, surrender?” Gallus hissed to Woofus. “Trust me, Gallus,” Woofus hissed back. “It will all work out.” The Diamond Dogs looked to one another, then one by one, nodded their heads. “Agreed!” their chosen speaker said, “But they must be kept under our guard.” “Understood, I am sure they will not cause trouble,” Woofus said, giving the others a knowing look. Reluctantly, they silently nodded in agreement too, allowing the Diamond Dogs to reposition themselves so to encircle them all. Rather than untie Ocellus and Smolder, one of the burlier of the dogs simply picked them up and threw them over a shoulder to carry like a sack of potatoes. Smolder took issue with this. “Hey, I am NOT a knapsack!” she complained, squirming against her bonds, ineffectively bouncing her body off the dog’s back. Then later, almost like an afterthought, she added, “and neither’s Ocellus!…though I suppose she could become one if she really wanted to, being a changeling and all…” “I think it’d better to be cooperative for the moment, Smolder,” Ocellus reasoned gently as the dogs started to lead the whole group away. “You two are okay, right?” Silverstream asked the captured pair as they went. “Any serious injuries?” “Well, nothing but my pride,” Smolder replied, Ocellus nodding in support of this remark. “And hopefully it’ll stay that way.” Nobody could argue with that. As it was apparently the closest way in now, they were all filed through the small cave-in going underground. Once inside, they found themselves in a decently sized tunnel leading steadily downward. There wasn’t too much to note about it except it clearly saw infrequent use, and once the light from the opening faded from view, it was lit by a series of magically glowing gemstones embedded at periodic places in the walls. Most important though was that the tunnel was clearly artificially made, and it wasn’t hard to figure out who had dug it. But this only intensified the growing mystery. “I was right, there are caves down here,” Smolder muttered quietly, taking the time to look around as they marched. She glanced at an adjoining tunnel as they passed. “A whole network of them, just like I thought. We were just unlucky enough to stumble across one running too close to the surface.” “But…why Diamond Dogs make tunnels?” Yona asked her friends in a soft whisper. “Do they live here?” Puzzled, but suspecting he already knew the answers, Sandbar navigated himself a bit closer to Woofus. “Woofus, what is going on?” he asked seriously. “Shush,” Woofus quietly hushed, but he was sympathetic. “I know you have questions, and I promise to explain…but later, after we’ve got this sorted.” Silverstream had been silently pondering upon all of this for a few moments. “Woofus,” she began delicately, “these Diamond Dogs…are they part of your pack? Is your pack living here, at Ghastly Gorge?” Woofus’s hesitation was clear. “Just please keep quiet and follow my lead,” he answered instead. “Now’s not the time to be discussing this.” They continued silently marching down the winding tunnel for some time. They had been going for long enough that it was starting to become difficult to tell how far they had journeyed and just how deep underground they now were. But then their captors led them around a sharp turn and the tunnel suddenly opened up into a much more massive chamber, in which snugly sat a veritable Diamond Dog town, perhaps of similar size to that of Ponyville. The outskirts contained a random collection of huts and small fields farming basic crops, which it appeared could grow thanks to the use of glowing gemstones mounted on poles. These were similar to the gemstones that largely lit the cavern except they looked and felt like they more closely simulated natural sunlight. Further inward the population grew denser, the modest fields giving way to a collection of stone-built buildings simplistic in design except decorated with blue sapphires for trim, all serving the same variety of purposes you’d expect to find in a typical small town. These structures ran on until it met with and ran partway up the sides of a massive naturally formed stone pillar roughly near the center of the chamber, providing its support. On the side of the pillar facing them was a roughly castle-shaped structure built right into it, running up about half its length. Behind the pillar, a dainty but noteworthy waterfall could be seen gushing out an adjoining cavern and into the chamber, pouring into a small river than ran from one side of the chamber, behind the pillar, and to the other side where it emptied into a small underground lake. More cavern openings could be seen lining the walls of the chamber, some appearing lightly guarded, and suggesting that this massive chamber served as the nexus point. All in all, it was quite a sight, and the group of friends were taken aback. Gallus even let out a low whistle. “Okay, this isn’t quite like anything else I’ve heard other Diamond Dogs achieving,” Sandbar noted aloud. Woofus quietly glanced back at them for a second, an internal debate taking place behind his eyes. Finally, he spoke as he looked ahead again. “Welcome to Sapphiria, then.” Their guards led them right through the middle of the town, giving them plenty of opportunity to take it in, but it also made them aware of the strong scent of Diamond Dogs well overdue for baths hanging thick in the chamber. Clearly, this was something of a trend with the inhabitants, so much so it was starting to become clear why Woofus had been in such a similar state when he first arrived at the school. But they otherwise proceeded to the castle structure without incident, and before long were slipping inside it. They entered through its bottommost level, but promptly started to climb a long staircase leading to the castle’s upper levels. Yona was getting winded by the time they reached the top. “Yona there yet?” she panted, then shooting a glare back at one of the guards when he poked her with his spear to keep her moving. “Almost,” Woofus promised, but at the same time he had begun to frown. “Though why they’re taking us specifically to the throne room when we asked to meet with the administrative staff…” At last, they arrived at a pair of sapphire-rimmed double doors, guarded by a pair of burly Diamond Dogs similar to their escorts, except these were adorned with gold-colored armor. Their lead escort quickly whispered an explanation to the closest royal guard, who nodded and he and his companion pushed open the doors for them, following the visitors inside. “Your majesty, forgive the interruption, but these creatures have requested your audience,” one of the royal guards proclaimed as they entered. As throne rooms went, this one wasn’t especially fancy, but placed on a raised podium just before a balcony entrance was a magnificent throne appearing to be carved straight out of pure sapphire. Seated in it was a slender male Diamond Dog, only a little older than Woofus. His fur was predominately a black-grey mixture except for his belly and most of his face which was colored a pure white, especially around the eyes and snout. He was dressed in a gold-colored gem-studded collar and an overcoat-like jacket studded with sapphires along the hems. He regarded his visitors with disinterest and annoyance as he rose to meet them. Gallus, Ocellus, Smolder, Sandbar, Yona, and Silverstream all regarded him back with fairly neutral expressions, unsure what to make of him. But not Woofus. The moment he set eyes on this dog, his eyes went wide with shock and recognition. “…Husky?” he breathed in astonishment. The dog, Husky, locked eyes with him and immediately they darkened. “Woofus,” he growled back. He stepped down from the podium and started to approach. “You have a lot of nerve to come back here.” Woofus, however, was still attempting to process this apparently unexpected twist. “Husky?” he repeated again. “How…what are you doing on the throne?” “Well, when you chose to leave it vacant, that left me free to fill it,” Husky growled back. Catching on to the implications of this statement, the others all looked to Woofus in surprise. Neither dog offered any sort of explanation though as Husky looked Woofus over. “You smell weird.” “It is called ‘clean,’” Woofus explained patiently. “What’s…‘clean?’” “It’s something the Equestrians seem to be very big on.” “This explains so much,” Gallus mumbled under his breath. Husky heard, drawing his attention onto the others, and he idly nodded his head at them. “Who are these outsiders you’ve brought with you, anyway?” “They were stalking around outside, being suspicious,” one of the guards offered. “Two of them caused a small cave-in in one of the entry tunnels, and we suspect the others were trying to do something similar.” “They’re innocent,” Woofus quickly interjected, remembering why he was here in the first place, and moved to stand protectively before his new friends. “They didn’t know Sapphiria was here, they are just students working on a school project. They’re no threat to you, Husky.” “Is that why you’re here?” Husky asked. “Pleading for their mercy?” “…yes.” “What really makes you think I’ll listen to you any more than them?” “Husky, I didn’t know you’d be here. I was expecting to meet before the administrative staff because…” “…because you thought they’d still be filling in for you, after you left?” Woofus was quiet for a moment. “Please let them go free, Husky.” “And why should I?” Husky eyed him again. “Who are they to you?” Woofus lowered his gaze a little. “They’re friends.” Husky laughed a single, cold, mocking laugh as he turned to a small table, pouring himself a drink. “Friends…that’s rich, Woofus, it really is.” He gulped down some of his drink before addressing the others. “A word to the not-so wise then,” he remarked coldly. “Ditch Woofus sooner rather than later. He’ll only disappoint you.” Offended by that, Silverstream started to speak up, but Sandbar quickly put a hoof over her beak, thinking it’d be better they kept quiet. “Please leave them out of this, Husky,” Woofus pleaded again when Husky still didn’t show any favor. “I could ask you who are they to you too, after all.” Husky suddenly slammed down his cup, temper rising, and whirled onto Woofus. “Who is anyone to you, Woofus?” he demanded. “You aren’t there for anyone.” Woofus’s gaze was a mix between apologetic, ashamed, and stern. “I’m sorry for what happened, Husky,” he said slowly. “If there was a way I could change it…” “Oh, don’t even!” Husky growled, advancing. “You weren’t there when I needed you, Woofus! You were too busy trying to run the land, and then you decided you couldn’t even do THAT, and you just left! If I hadn’t taken it upon myself to fill the spot you vacated and showed to our pack that I could do the job, what do you think would’ve happened to Sapphiria then?” He shook his head. “I don’t owe you anything right now, so why should I be doing you any favors?” “This is about me, Husky,” Woofus implored, trying to strike a deal. “Not them. Don’t punish innocent creatures from lands beyond our own whose leaders might take issue over their disappearance! If you let them go, I promise I’ll stay here, and then you can punish me however you see fit.” “Woofus—” Ocellus started to object, having to twist in her bindings to try and see what was happening. Husky interrupted her. “Are you really trying to say that they actually mean something to you, Woofus?” he asked, pointing a claw at the dog’s friends. “That they are actually your friends?” Woofus nodded. “Yes,” he answered simply. “And I want to spare them having to suffer for my mistakes that they had nothing to do with.” Husky debated for a moment, then snorted and turned away, heading back for his throne. “Too bad,” he grumbled as he walked off before addressing the guards. “Lock them all away.” The four guards didn’t waste any time and roughly moved in front of the group to start herding them out. The others, alarmed, all looked to Woofus for guidance, but he wasn’t sure what else to do but dig his paws into the floor and protest. “No, wait, Husky!” he called to the other dog. “Husky! Husky!” But Husky paid him no further attention, sitting back down on his throne and turning his attention back to what appeared to be paperwork. He completely ignored Woofus’s shouts as they were ushered out of the room, the doors closing behind them. This didn’t stop Woofus from trying though, struggling to force his way past the restraining guards. “Husky! Don’t do this! You don’t need to imprison anyone! Husky! Please, hear me out!” One of the guards gave Woofus a shove so to silence him, but he shoved back. “Let me go! Let me back in there! Let me talk this out with him!” Silverstream gently reached out to take him by the shoulder. “Woofus, I don’t think it’s going to matter now,” she observed sadly. Woofus glanced back at her, dejected, but as the guards moved them further away, he kept trying to press his way back. “No,” he declared. “No, I’m not letting him just lock you all up for no reason other than he’s trying to take it out on me! This wasn’t at all what I was expecting to happen! He must listen to me!” But his struggles proved mostly fruitless—the guards barring his path stood firm and only continued to herd them away without any real effort exerted. Then Gallus took Silverstream’s spot at Woofus’s shoulder. “Speaking of,” he said in a surprisingly wily tone. “That deal you struck with these guys so to get down here, about surrendering if we didn’t resist? I assume that’s all off now and we’re all free to, well, resist?” Woofus hesitated, not following. “…yes?” It was answer enough. “All right then,” Gallus said, and smugly turned. “Yona?” Yona, who had mostly been following the group idly and without resistance up to now, buckled down with a smirk. “Yak smash!” she declared before promptly headbutting the nearest guard, bowling him over. The others then proceeded to jump, tackle, and occupy the remaining three guards, breaking up them almost immediately. His path now suddenly clear, Woofus exploited the chaos and ran for the throne room again, only to skid to a halt as he found the two royal guards charging to join the fray with more rushing in to blockade the doors. Realizing only more still would be coming as the alarm was raised, Woofus instead decided that since they were about to be outnumbered anyway, they should flee and try to escape while they still held an advantage. He raced back to the others, motioning to come with. “Follow me, quickly!” he urged, picking up a fallen spear as he did. Gallus twirled a spear he had also snagged and tucked it under his wing. “Right behind you!” he said, pushing Sandbar and Silverstream in the direction Woofus was running. Smolder and Ocellus were, up to now, still tied up and dandling from the back of the Diamond Dog carrying them. But Smolder changed this by blowing a stream of firebreath down at the bindings, burning right through them. Almost immediately she sprung free as the rope snapped. The rope binding Ocellus remained in place, spared from the flames, but she too broke free from the part their guard was using as a handle and flopped onto the floor. Alarmed and fearing he was on fire, the guard didn’t immediately notice as he tried (and failed) to pat-down his back, so Smolder used the distraction to shove him into a group of other guards racing up, tumbling into a heap. Ocellus immediately began to wiggle in her bindings. “Great, now just give me a second to shapeshift and—” But Smolder simply lifted the bound changeling up over her head to carry. “No time!” she declared as she raced after the others, only a few paces behind them. As the group raced through the castle hallways, Yona caught up with Woofus. “Diamond Dog have plan?” she asked urgently. Woofus nodded. “We get out of the castle and race for the nearest tunnel out of Sapphiria,” he explained as they ran. “If we can do that before the guards can catch us or barricade the city…” “…then we can just race back up to the surface, back to the train station, and then we’re home free!” Sandbar finished with a grin, catching on. “You’re leading us to an exit, then?” Smolder called from the back. “The nearest one to here, yes!” Woofus called back. “They’re starting to catch up with us!” Ocellus shouted, having a view of the guards chasing behind them as Smolder carried her. They heard the staccato cry of a horn at the same time, echoing throughout the building. There was little need to ask Woofus what it was—the horn was clearly sounding the alarm. “This way!” Woofus called as they started down a new corridor to where it intersected another lined with windows. But when he arrived and proceeded to turn left, he found there were more guards racing towards them, blocking the path. “They’re cornering us!” he said as he stopped, knowing the guards already chasing them blocked the way back. “We’re trapped!” Gallus declared as he and the others all skidded to a halt one-by-one. “We’ve got no way out!” Yona, however, kept running. “Yona make way out!” she declared as she rushed past them. “Yona, wait!” Silverstream objected. But Yona raced on, smashing through the closest window and dropping onto the slanting roof just behind it. As the others watched, she skidded down this almost right to the edge before, with surprising agility for someone her size, the yak leapt from the roof onto the awning on the next building, bouncing her up just enough to clamber onto its roof. She then turned and cheerily waved at her friends still standing in the castle. The others looked at each other hesitantly, but with the guards closing in from all other directions, their choice was clear. “You aren’t seriously…” Silverstream still started to protest. “No choice!” Woofus said as he leapt out the opening and skidded after Yona. Gallus and Silverstream leapt out the broken window too, but both opted to fly instead. Sandbar went to follow, but hesitated at the edge of the jump. “There’s got to be a better way,” he muttered. “Oh, just go!” Smolder snapped as she ran up and planted a kick to the pony’s rump, pushing him out. He scampered a bit as he skidded down the roof, about to tumble off the edge sideways and out of control, but was quickly snatched up by Gallus and carried the rest of the way. Smolder barely had the chance to see this before the guards caught up with her. She tried to quickly flap out with the still-bound Ocellus in tow, but a guard stopped her short by grabbing her by the tail, and her attempt to bodily throw the changeling out instead was also thwarted when another guard tackled her in the side, instead sending Ocellus rolling along the hallway floor, helpless. “Go!” Smolder shouted at the others, waving at them to get out of here while they still could. “Don’t wait for us, go get—” she was cut short as the guards pinning her down stuffed a muzzle over her mouth, learning from her firebreathing trick earlier. With her and Ocellus rapidly restrained again, the remaining guards gathered at the broken window and soon one hopped out to give chase, skidding down the roof towards the others. Knowing more would only follow, Gallus acted instinctively and slashed the ropes holding up the awning with his captured spear. As it immediately collapsed against the side of the building, the pursuing guard to instead slammed into a brick wall before dropping into an overfull dumpster that happened to be sitting directly under him. This halted any more guards trying to give chase as well. Taking that window of opportunity, Gallus started directing them to the other side of the building’s roof, where a set of stairs led into the street below. “C’mon, we need to go,” he said urgently. While the others quickly followed, Woofus hesitated, lingering behind. “But we can’t just leave…” he began to object, motioning back at Smolder and Ocellus still in the castle. “We aren’t,” Gallus promised resolutely as he gave Woofus’s paw an urgent tug. “We’ll go back for them, but we need to get more help first.” Woofus still looked back at the castle, ashamed and dejected, but finally he followed too, bringing up the rear of their fleeing party. Meanwhile, Smolder and Ocellus, bound once again but this time more tightly and separate from each other, were dragged down into the lowest levels of the castle where its dreary and more cavern-like dungeons lay. Smolder fought every step of the way, but her bindings kept her arms and wings pinned, the guards always kept her facing away so her legs couldn’t do much damage to any of them, and the muzzle they had put on her worked well to suppress her firebreath, keeping her mouth too tightly closed for anything but smoke and the odd spark from getting out—not enough to burn it off. Ocellus was likewise secured, except instead of a muzzle, they simply wrapped a rope tightly around her horn, the pressure it exerted keeping her from being able to form any useful spells, let alone shapeshift. Thus they were both at the complete mercy of the Diamond Dogs until they were unceremoniously chucked into an empty cell and its barred door slammed shut behind them. As the guards walked off again, Smolder squirmed around a bit until she managed to get one of her claws under the ropes to cut it. Freed and ripping the muzzle off, she raced to the cell door. “Hey!” she shouted at the departing guards. “Get back here! You have no right to imprison us! Hey!” Getting no response and the last guard vanishing from view, she slammed her fists against the metal bars in anger. “Unfortunately, I do not think we are going to have much say in the matter,” Ocellus conceded with a sigh, squirming against her bonds too, but not having as much success in freeing herself. Smolder, meanwhile, had turned her attention to the cell bars, breathing fire on them to try and melt them. She soon found that she could heat them up until they were glowing red, but not enough to melt, and after gnawing on the bars a bit, found that her teeth couldn’t bite through them whether they were hot or cold. Growling in frustration, she tried bending them with her arms, but had no further success and went back to banging her fists on them. “Rocks, these bars are sturdy!” she cursed. “I can’t break or force them open!” “Well, that is the general idea of prison bars,” Ocellus intoned, rubbing her horn on the ground to try and get the rope off. She snorted as she wasn’t succeeding. “Can you help me get this rope off my horn? It’s keeping me from doing any magic.” “Yeah, yeah, just a sec,” Smolder said with a dejected sigh and she leaned heavily on the bars for a moment before turning to her friend. She undid the rope with one slice of her claw then turned her attention to cutting the changeling’s other bonds too. While she was doing this, Ocellus tried to light her horn and cast any spells that could help, but only succeeded in casting ineffective cyan sparks. Smolder noticed and frowned. “What are you trying to do anyway?” Ocellus grunted as she tried to cast a spell to no avail. She shook her head. “There must be some kind of magic dampening mineral in these walls,” she remarked, gazing at the rough-hewn stone walls of their cell. “I can’t seem to successfully form any spells, and as long as I can’t do that, I can’t shapeshift.” Freed now, she sat up and sighed, nodding her head at the cell bars. “Otherwise, I could just shift into something small enough to slip through those bars and open the door for you.” She dropped her gaze. “I guess it won’t be that easy.” By now, though, Smolder had risen and was wandering the room, occasionally stomping her foot on the earthen floor. “Well, I wouldn’t give up just yet, because as we dragons say,” she smiled as she found a particular spot in one corner and knelt down over it, “when one door closes, you make your own.” She then started digging with a furor using her claws. Ocellus stepped over to watch, catching on that the dragoness meant to dig them out. But after only getting a couple feet down, the sound of shifting dirt abruptly changed into a loud scraping noise soon followed by Smolder yelping in pain. “AuuuggghhIbrokeaclaw!” she snarled all at once, sitting up with one paw wrapped around the pointer finger of the other. Sure enough, it was missing most of the pointed nail on the tip. Furious, she stomped her foot on the offender. “It’s all because of this crummy rock!” Ocellus leaned over to peer at the dark layer of material the dragon had partly uncovered. “Oh my,” she said. “I think that’s vibranium.” “Vibrawhat?” “Vibranium. It’s a rather rare metal, but it’s a favorite for building things like shields and stuff because of its extreme durability.” “Oh, well, lucky us.” Smolder stomped her foot on the deposit again in frustration. Ocellus was still studying it though, tilting her head. “That appears to be a fairly sizeable deposit of it though.” She looked up at the cell walls again. “I’ve got a hunch it lines most if not all of this cell…I guess that would be why the Diamond Dogs built their dungeons here. It made for a good prison.” “Yeah, but it also means we aren’t digging our way out of here any time soon,” Smolder growled, waving her sore claw back and forth in the air. “Not that it matters, because now my paw stings too much to even dig, thanks to that broken claw.” Ocellus patted her on the shoulder. “Try to stay positive,” she advised. “I’m sure our friends are planning some way to rescue us as we speak.” And they were. But they were also still trying to figure out how to rescue themselves too. It was simple enough to slip through the streets of the underground city undetected. Woofus knew the city like the back of his paw, and thus knew all the shortcuts and back alleys they could duck into, remaining largely out of sight of the guards searching for them or from any citizens that would turn them in. It helped that the populace was rather dense in the center part of the city, leaving lots of nooks and crannies to hide in too. So navigating the city wasn’t the problem. What was the problem was at the exit tunnels leading out of the chamber Sapphiria sat in. Even though they were able to move through the city at a fairly quick rate, never once really getting held up for any significant amount of time, they ultimately found that this still wasn’t fast enough. All of the three major exits in and out of the cavern were already cut off by at least a whole squad of guards, stationed at the exits and blocking access in and out. Any secondary and more indirect exits to the surface they found were similarly guarded soon thereafter. They were effectively sealed inside the city, leaving them no way to escape, and the number of guards at every exit consistently outnumbered them, so fighting their way out wasn’t an option either, especially as the group would prefer to not have to fight at all. So after confirming that all of the exits were cut off, the group ducked into a row of bushes about a hundred feet from the main exit they had originally entered from, eyeing the group of guards stationed there. “So,” Gallus summarized glumly, “this complicates things.” “Yes it does,” Woofus replied, just as dejected. “I really hoped we would beat them to these exits to go get help, but these guards must have been sent straight here the moment the alarm sounded at Pillar Castle, probably so to catch us trying to escape.” They all quickly ducked deeper into the bushes as a patrol passed nearby, oblivious to their presence. “At least these bushes provide excellent cover.” “What are these bushes, anyway?” Sandbar asked, examining the berry-loaded and somewhat thorny branches of the shrubs. “Punchberry bushes,” Woofus replied. “And…why are they called punchberries?” They were interrupted by Silverstream popping one of the berries into her mouth and immediately starting to gasp and cough, clutching at her throat over its potency. “Because they really pack a punch,” Woofus simply answered. “You’re telling me,” Silverstream wheezed. She smacked her beak a few times, trying to clear her palette. “The aftertaste isn’t helping either.” “But Yona still not understand,” Yona meanwhile mumbled aloud. “Why Diamond Dogs do this?” “Yeah, Woofus,” Gallus said, his expression souring slightly as he shot a look at the Diamond Dog, who cowered. “You want to explain all that now? I mean, it’s already pretty clear that you’ve been in this place before…Sapphiria, wasn’t it?…because you know the terrain, just like you knew the tunnels leading to it were out here too, didn’t you? That’s why you were so nervous about being here, wasn’t it? Plus everybody here seems to know you, and you know them, but they don’t seem to like you too much, and we sure as hay don’t know why.” “Well…we could speculate…” Silverstream began, feeling she could make an educated guess from what details they’d picked up. “But…” Gallus interrupted, pointing a talon at her with a scowl, “…we don’t have to, because we’ve got Woofus here, who already knows everything.” He looked back at Woofus. “So how about you cut the secrets and fill us in now, huh?” There was a beat as they all looked at the dog. “Please?” Yona added, attempting to sound polite. Woofus dropped to sit on the ground and sighed. “Ocellus was right,” he began abruptly. “Earlier…when we all first met.” He reached around himself to rub his back. “The markings on my back do mean something…they mark me as royalty.” Eyes widened at this, but Silverstream took it a step further with a loud gasp. “Say whaaaaaat?!” she squealed. She was immediately elbowed in the ribs by Sandbar. “Shh!” he hushed, jabbing a hoof in the direction of the nearby guards. “We don’t want them to hear!” “Right, right,” Silverstream said and repeated her exclamation again, but this time in a quiet whisper. “Say whaaaaaat?” Yona scratched at her head with one hoof. “So…yak friend is royalty?” she asked. “Yona never had royal friend before.” Silverstream playfully swatted the yak’s leg at this. “Yeah, you do! I’m royalty, remember?” “Being a queen’s niece makes you royalty?” Gallus asked, half-heartedly. “Of indirect lineage, but yeah,” Silverstream explained. She jabbed her thumb at her chest. “My official title is Lady Silverstream. But it’s more of a formality and not that big a deal, so I just don’t use it that often because I don’t want to make a big hullabaloo about it. Obviously.” “Besides, Yona,” Sandbar continued. “Aren’t you friends with the leader of Yakyakistan, Prince Rutherford?” Yona waved her hoof dismissively. “Prince Rutherford is prince! Not same as friend, more…” she rolled her eyes upwards as she sought the right word. “…lecturer.” “Regardless,” Woofus interjected, bringing attention back to him, “my level of royalty would probably be more equivalent to Yona’s Prince Rutherford than to Silverstream’s, as I assume Silverstream is not the next in line to rule, am I correct?” “Uh-huh,” Silverstream confirmed with a nod. “That honor actually goes to my cousin, Princess Skystar.” “So you’re saying you’re next in line to rule this place, Woofus?” Gallus asked. Woofus averted his gaze. “If things had gone as planned, I would already be ruling as pack leader by now, Gallus,” he replied, ashamed. An awkward silence followed for a second as the others glanced at each other. “So…what happened?” Sandbar inquired finally. “Why is this Husky guy ruling instead?” “Yeah, what’s up with that guy?” Gallus asked, frowning as he recalled the Diamond Dog. “Who rubbed him the wrong way?” “Me,” Woofus replied and sighed again. “That’s what this is about.” He turned to face the others so to give them the full explanation. “Husky and I were friends, or at least I had always considered him one and I’d like to think he had too. I was always known to be the next leader since birth, so my life was always about preparing for that role. Husky, however, had aspirations to enter the royal guard. But the guard has high standards, and…Husky always had worries if he really could pass the entrance exam. Nevertheless, he’s long been working towards that goal, and I’ve tried to help and support him however I can along the way…promised him he could count on me for that.” Woofus averted his eyes again, his shame growing. “This makes what happened so stupid…but around the time Husky was to take the entrance exam was about the same time I was making final preparations to become pack leader. I had already taken on many of the day to day duties managing pack’s affairs, making plans for my ruling agenda, and so forth. I was basically swamped, and couldn’t spare the time to be there for Husky as he geared up for the exam. When the day came for him to take it, I was preoccupied in other infrastructure-related affairs that I thought were more pressing for my attention, so…I wasn’t there to support him.” He trailed off. “He didn’t pass the exam, did he?” Silverstream asked, catching on. Woofus shook his head. “No,” he admitted. “I don’t know if he just wasn’t as ready as he thought, if he panicked, or if there was a legitimate reason for him to fail…but failed he did, and…he blamed me for it, because I wasn’t there to support him like I promised.” “So wait,” Gallus interjected, turning incredulous. “You mean to tell me this is all just because of a failed exam?” “Can’t he take it again?” Sandbar asked. “Yes, next year,” Woofus confirmed, but waved it aside. “But that’s not the point. The point is that I failed to be the friend Husky needed, and worse, I didn’t even know about it until he came storming up to me that evening, ready to chew me out over it. And he did, it escalated into an argument, and…” he trailed off, looking pitiful as he stared, ashamed, at his feet. “So…what this have to do with Woofus not ruling?” Yona asked. “What happened with Husky rattled me,” Woofus admitted. “It made me second guess myself, my actions, my priorities, and if I was really ready to take on the task of keeping this place in order.” He motioned vaguely at the cavernous chamber the city sat in. “It sounds silly, but…if I failed to be there for someone I thought of as a friend…could I really expect to be there for every Diamond Dog counting on me to be their leader? My second-guessing soon started causing problems at the administrative level, and finally, I just…snapped. Chose not to take the throne, and…left. Eventually I heard about Princess Twilight’s friendship school and thought, maybe, I could go there, learn what I did wrong, and get a fresh, clean, start where I wouldn’t have my past mistakes weighing on me so much…hide from what happened.” He snorted and kicked at the dirt. “And look where that got all of us.” He hung his head sadly, blinking back tears. “Now we’re trapped and on the run and Ocellus and Smolder have probably been thrown into jail by now and it’s all my fault…I’m sorry for getting all of you dragged into this, and for not telling you any of this from the start.” A heavy moment of silence hung over the group then Gallus patted the dog on the back reassuringly. “Well…at least you’re telling us now,” he said. “And it wouldn’t be fair to say this mess is entirely your fault. I think the blame can be shared all around today.” This heartened Woofus slightly, enough that he made a small, thankful, grin. “Here’s what I don’t understand though,” Sandbar spoke up. “If Woofus is supposed to be the next in line to rule because of his upbringing, why is Husky, who’s had none of that, now on the throne?” “That I don’t entirely understand either,” Woofus admitted. He shrugged. “He must have done something to show the pack’s administrative staff he was the best dog for the job, but… I don’t know.” he shook his head. “Does it matter though? However he did it, he’s the one who currently rules, and thus every dog around here is going to answer to him. There’s no changing that now, and I’m not sure we have to. We just need to rescue our friends and escape.” “Easier said than done,” Silverstream remarked, glancing again at the guards blocking their exit. “It’d be smarter if we could get back to Ponyville to get more help, but we can’t.” “I’m not sure it’d matter at this point if we could get out of here anyway,” Sandbar remarked, pulling out a train schedule and his pocket watch from his saddlebags again. “We’ve already missed the train we were originally planning to take back, and the next isn’t going to be coming for another two hours.” “What we do by ourselves, then?” Yona asked, somewhat uneasily. Gallus tapped his tail on the ground as he thought, but he shook his head as he continued to draw a blank. “Woofus, you know this place better than we do,” he said, turning to the dog. “There must be something around here that can help us. Some back exit, or something we can use as a tool, or even someone who might be willing to hear us out, I don’t know…” Woofus thought for a long moment. “Well…I guess there is Rottweiler…” he said uncertainly. He didn’t sound optimistic about this option. “But…” “Who’s that?” Silverstream asked. “Sapphiria’s chief security advisor,” Woofus explained. “He oversees all operations concerning the city’s security and advises the ruling pack leader on how to best proceed in such matters. Were I ruling, he would be the one I would turn to for advise on affairs such as this, and I have known him for a good while. But with Husky on the throne, he would be obligated to answer to him now, not me.” He sighed. “Still though…I can’t imagine Rottweiler will be happy with Husky’s order to arrest us, for fear of the unnecessary fallout it could create with other powers in Equestria, so…I don’t know. We might be able to sway him to help us at least escape, maybe even arrange to free Smolder and Ocellus if we’re really lucky, but…” he shrugged. “It’s hard to say with him. He can be a bit by-the-book at times, and he tends to stay loyal to the ruling pack leader regardless. So I really can’t say.” “It still sounds like our best option,” Sandbar reasoned. “I mean, we don’t really have many others at the moment. And we could really use inside help at this point, cut off as we are from the outside.” “He wouldn’t have to do much, either, would he?” Silverstream reasoned. “He’d just have to get at least one of us outside long enough to get, say, Princess Twilight to come and negotiate a better solution.” “Sil’s right,” Gallus agreed. “If this Rottweiler guy can do at least that much, it’d still be a great step in the right direction.” “But can Woofus Diamond Dog convince him?” Yona asked, and turned expectantly to Woofus to find out. Woofus sighed, and it was clear from his body language that he wasn’t confident. But he also had nothing else to suggest. “I guess, like Sandbar said, we don’t have many other options…short of somehow putting me back on the throne, and I’d rather not do that right now.” “Okay, so it’s settled,” Silverstream declared. “Now how do we find this Rottweiler guy?” “Well, right now he’d be on-duty, and deep within Pillar Castle where it’s going to be hard to get to him without getting caught,” Woofus explained, sitting up. “But when he goes off-duty, he always heads down to the nearby watering hole to socialize with other off-duty security staff. That’ll probably be our best chance to talk it out with him.” He shook his head. “But he won’t be getting there for a couple of hours still.” “Well, that’s okay,” Silverstream reasoned. “We can use that time to plan out how we’re going to do this.” “It’s not like we’ve got much else to do except wait anyway,” Gallus added, shooting his own glance at the exit guards in the distance. Despite their previous failures, Smolder didn’t stop looking for some way to escape their cell. She had no further luck of course, but clearly she wasn’t about to give up. As trying to dig their way out had proved fruitless, she turned her attention back to the bars locking them in, currently throwing her whole body weight into getting them to give, so much so she had her legs up and mounted on the adjacent bars for more leverage, leaving all of her limbs off the ground. Despite all the effort and grunting she was putting into it though, the bars remained unaffected as always. Ocellus lay nearby, watching the dragoness strain. She sighed. “You might as well stop, Smolder, we’re not going to escape this cell,” she said, resigning. “We…can’t…just…give up!” Smolder grunted with every tug. Her grip slipped and she suddenly toppled to the ground. Frustrated, she pounded the dirty floor with her fists for a moment. “We aren’t,” Ocellus assured patiently. “Circumstances presently aren’t favorable for us, so we need to wait until that changes.” “Who knows how long that’ll take?” Smolder barked as she picked herself up, intent on trying again. “It could be years before we get out of here.” “Doubtful. Our other friends got away, and you know just as well as I do that they aren’t going to leave us behind.” “Yeah, but what if they get caught too? Then we’re all stuck!” Smolder gripped the bars with her claws, trying to find the weak spot that was still eluding her. “And no offense to them, but what makes you think they’ll have any more luck than us?” “They’ve got Woofus with them.” “By the sound of it, Woofus was what got us into this mess!” “Smolder, it was clear Woofus didn’t anticipate what happened any more than we did. But he knows the creatures and the terrain. He’ll help them think of something.” Smolder heaved a heavy sigh, collapsing onto the bars. “I know,” she muttered dejectedly. “It’s just…I don’t like this one bit. And the fact Woofus got blindsided by it just as much as us…bugs me a lot.” Ocellus nodded in agreement. “Something is definitely not right,” she agreed. “But we don’t know all the details, and right now there’s not a lot we can do about that.” Smolder simply leaned against the bars in silence for a long moment, letting them smoosh the side of her face. But then hearing footsteps coming their way, she perked up. “Maybe he can tell us.” “He” proved to be Husky, escorted by two royal guards, coming to stand outside the cell to peer through the bars at his two prisoners, but he didn’t seem particularly pleased. Smolder ignored that though. “Hey!” she nodded at him. “Let us out?” Husky folded his arms with a sigh, his regal overcoat fluttering. “Perhaps,” he conceded as Ocellus joined Smolder at the cell bars. “If you tell me where your cohorts are hiding.” Smolder snorted. “Hay if we know.” “Why would we tell you if we did know, anyway?” Ocellus reasoned. “What’s in it for us?” “Like I already implied, your freedom,” Husky assured. “I’m willing to negotiate your release if you cooperate.” Smolder wasn’t convinced. “And the catch?” “You and the other outsiders leave under oath that you will never return to Sapphiria and tell no one of its existence,” Husky dictated. “And I keep Woofus here.” Smolder snorted, but Ocellus thought it over. “But why? I don’t think Woofus really wants to cause you any trouble,” she observed. “He proposed earlier that he was more than happy to leave peacefully and not return with the rest of us if you will only permit it.” “Yeah, you totally had the chance to clean your paws of this earlier, but you let it slip through your claws,” Smolder added. “So don’t go whining to us about it.” “My point is that we don’t need to fight at all,” Ocellus stressed. “Why must you treat it as if it is?” “Look, I’m trying to do you a favor here,” Husky repeated fretfully, ignoring the question. “By all accounts I should keep you outsiders locked up, but against my better judgment, I’m willing to let you go if you’ll just cooperate. As for Woofus, that is a personal affair between him and me.” “It sounds to me you’re letting that personal affair cloud your judgment,” Ocellus observed, tilting her head. Husky’s frown deepened and he changed the subject. “We’ve locked down the city,” he explained for their reference. “All of the exits are blocked and we’ve searched the land above ground. No one has gotten in or out, so your cohorts must still be in the city somewhere. Tell me where they could be hiding.” “How are we supposed to know?” Smolder snapped. “Dude, we don’t know this place! They could be anywhere for all we know! All I could tell you is that you can bet your rump they aren’t going to take this lying down.” Husky raised an eyebrow. “We’ll have to see about that.” Heaving another dejected sigh, he turned to go, adding, “But for the record, the offer stands…for now.” And with that, he walked off again, taking his escort with. Smolder snorted and turned away. “What a jerk.” Ocellus, however, watched him go. “Something’s not right,” she mumbled. “He seems…pressured. Uncertain.” Smolder glanced at the changeling. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “I’m not sure.” Ocellus’s brow furrowed. “But I’m getting the feeling it might be important…”