Twilight, as we all well know, likes being in control.
Being dragged deep underground by an unknown assailant does not feel like being in control.
Twilight hates it.
It takes a couple seconds, but she rapidly - given the circumstances, what with the constant jostling back and forth and the cramped tunnel and the dirt shooting past her that threatens to invade her mouth should she so much as twist her head - comes to the conclusion that the meaty paws gripping her and pulling her ever onwards do not belong to a creature with her best interests in mind. And she does not like the idea of being a pretty pony plaything for some subterranean beast, or worse. She already is one of those, thank you very much. Well, whenever she lets Doug take charge.
Maybe it is how Doug twists her vast repertoire of spells, or the long delve giving her plenty of time to review her options, but by the time she finds herself spilling into a more open tunnel, Twilight’s horn is already charging a cascading chain of spells. It certainly doesn’t help when those calloused, rugged paws grip her flanks; she might have given her captor the benefit of the doubt until a deep voice rumbles, “Does pretty pony-”
She pulls the trigger, dumping her charged magic into one spell after another. Faster than she could normally cast, without the buildup. First, a set of shades for her own eyes. Followed immediately by a blast of light illuminating exactly how far forward she can go. She can feel the paws on her flanks loosening, along with a high-pitched gasp, but she is too far along in her chain to stop without debilitating herself.
She teleports forward, just a few feet to the other end of the tunnel. A wave of force emanates from her in every direction, widening the tunnel but more importantly knocking back her would-be captor like an Apple-worthy buck to his face, chest, groin, and legs simultaneously. The creature flies back, slamming into the opposite wall with a sickening crack.
Twilight’s gut rises to her mouth as her final spell completes. No time to worry. A spectral blade, similar to Trixie’s and fully capable of severing limbs but without any notion of retaining the ability to move the separated body part. She spins around, her blade illuminating the tunnel and creature in front of her.
Instead of the hulking monstrosity she imagined writhes a cowering brute with a ruined nose, clasping his large paws to his eyes. He moans piteously, pulling his small legs to his chest as he quivers. His deep voice shakes with pain, “Why? Why hurt poor Brutus?”
“Hurt you?” Twilight exclaims. “You grabbed me! And dragged me down here!” Her bravado fades slightly at the blood dripping from the Diamond Dog’s mouth, the way he rocks back and forth. “You! I…” She didn’t mean to hurt him, did she? That sick feeling in her gut returns; what kind of monster chooses violence as their first recourse? Her blade winks out, the light of her horn now softly illuminating around them.
The paws come away from his eyes, tiny pinpricks of black unable to focus on her or anything else. “But. You knock.” One paw blindly waves around, finally locating one of the walls, an imprint of a Diamond Dog in the now compact earth. “You knock on door. Brutus bring down. Brutus good at bring down.” Brutus sniffs, or tries to, as a paw comes up to shield his eyes from the light of Twilight’s horn.
Twilight spins around, only managing a couple of hoofsteps before she gets violently ill. This isn’t what she was taught! It isn’t the pony way to, as Doug put it, shoot first and ask questions later! It is a pony’s duty, if not their inherent nature, to make friends with everycreature! To spread the magic of Harmony and Friendship! Isn’t it?
What Princess Celestia told her is right, whenever she asked about Dark magics.
Princess Celestia had a haunted look in her eyes when she told Twilight of the dangers of twisting Dark magic to the Light. How - even when one’s heart and mind are pure, their intentions genuine - taking even the tiniest portion of darkness leads one down a road best left untrotted. That taking the powers best left untouched corrupts oneself irrevocably, when one allows darkness to mingle with light. The Princess even demonstrated on Twilight’s insistence. She told Twilight of a spell she is working on, one that she claimed would help her old foalsitter Cadance, though she didn’t explain how.
The spell had warped the light around Princess Celestia, pitching the entire secluded corner of the dungeons into a deep darkness despite the bright torches burning around them. Her mane and tail lost their ethereal qualities, hanging limply against the alicorn as she stumbled to the bare floor. Twilight had started to rush over but stopped at Princess Celestia’s weak whisper. “It isn’t finished.” Moments filled with dread passed before Twilight was finally able to approach and comfort the drained alicorn. Twilight had deduced the application of the spell, of course, and had no intention of letting her magic be siphoned away. Though Princess Celestia, likely intentionally, shrouded how to actually cast the spell from her.
Given what happened with Rarity, perhaps her mentor had not done a good enough job.
And here she is, doing the same thing, though this time with Doug and his ‘expertise’. For all the wonders he might have hinted at, of what his species had built, it is all tainted by their proclivity towards violence. Perhaps she should be thankful he has not tried to introduce more, and hidden the extent of his knowledge, much as she would like to understand and integrate more of it.
Twilight flinches as a warm paw lightly rests on her withers, a deep voice hesitantly asking, “Pretty pony okay?”
Twilight’s voice catches in her throat, only a single nod coming out. She turns her head, looking up at the mangled maw and thinking about what might have been, inspired by how Doug plays Ogres and Oubliettes, a twisted capture or brutal battle. Instead, it is two creatures, who never knew each other, able to put aside their differences and be friends.
Well, maybe it is her fault they got off on the wrong hoof. Paw. Whatever.
Twilight forces a smile, though it gets easier as she talks. “Yes. Pretty pony okay. She also very sorry about what happened.”
Brutus chuckles. “Is okay. Brutus tough dog! Take more than knock head.” He leans over, his tongue panting out of his smiling mouth, his lip busted and stained red. “Brutus think pretty pony smell good, but he can’t smell. Can Brutus taste pretty pony?”
Twilight laughs nervously, her eyes briefly flicking down her barrel as the walls around them rumble. “Um, okay. You can taste me.”
A wide grin spreads over Brutus. He swiftly moves forward, his large wet tongue lapping against her face. Twilight giggles at the bristly feeling, her hooves coming up to playfully push against the dog all too happy to press forward. He rolls Twilight to her back, both of them laughing.
“Twilight!” Spike yells as he bursts through a wall, leaping out of the red jacketed Diamond Dog’s paws. He leaps up into the air, his pointed tail viciously jackhammering into Brutus’ tail.
“Arruugh!” cries Brutus, snatching his injured tail away, two bounds taking him out of Spike’s reach. He softly moans, clutching his tail between his legs. “Why? Why hurt poor Brutus?”
“Don’t worry, Twilight!” Spike calls as he rushes to her side. “I’ll protect you!”
“Spike!” Twilight admonishes as she gets to her hooves, “Stop! Brutus was just being friendly with me. It’s okay!”
“But they took you away!” Spike yells, his eyes still trained on the four Diamond Dogs awkwardly looking at each other. “And they want to use you to find gems!”
“Yes!” nods the short yellow dog. “Find lots of gems!”
Twilight raises an eyebrow, glancing at Spike. “But, we came here to find lots of gems.” Her attention turns to the short one, “You know where there are a lot of gems?”
“Yes! We do! But they all hidden, buried away!” The short dog runs to one of the tunnels leading away, stopping and motioning with a paw. “We take you! Hurry!” The big dog and the red jacketed dog push past Twilight and Spike to follow the short dog. Brutus lets go of his tail with a whimper as he returns to sitting at the ready, close to the remains of the tunnel they had taken from the surface.
“Excuse me, you didn’t happen to see another pony come down here, did you?” Twilight asks, making sure the other three dogs are waiting for her. “Name of Trixie, blue, mare.”
Brutus shakes his head, “No can see blue. But Trixie did come.” He sighs dejectedly, “She no let Brutus taste.”
“Whew!” Twilight says, wiping a bit of dirt from her brow. “Where did she go?”
“Kole take her see gems.” Brutus points in the direction of the other three dogs.
“Hopefully, that’s where we’re going, too.” Twilight lets Spike ride her back as they follow the three Diamond Dogs along the twisting corridors and cramped tunnels. “My name is Twilight, and this is Spike. What are your names?”
The red jacketed dog responds, “I Rover.” He points at the short dog, then the wide one, “Spot. Fido.” They occasionally pass another Diamond Dog loping around the tunnels, a tight squeeze with lots of sniffing. Rover motions forward as they come to a large cavern. A large number of purple tipped poles stick out of the ground, clustered along a line along one wall with a few blue clubs. Multiple pillars support the ceiling, and tiny hints of gems gleam from nearly every surface.
On the opposite side of the cavern is Trixie and a dog Rover identifies as Kole. They are standing next to several mine carts filled with gems of varying shapes and colors, arguing vociferously. Kole is holding a large, rusted metal harness. He keeps lifting it, as though he expects Trixie to step underneath it. But, instead, she keeps backing up, shaking her head and pointing a hoof back at the Diamond Dog.
Twilight’s horn lights, her eyes turning white. “Wow…” she mumbles as she looks to her hooves, the earth under her practically littered with gems of all varieties. She walks towards the poles, raising an eyebrow. The frequency of red gems is increasing, but they aren’t rubies. Instead, something closer to the anger essences she has seen in Rarity’s storeroom and Spike claims is his second favorite variety, maybe even because Rarity doesn’t let him eat all that many of them.
“What are you doing here?” Twilight asks, motioning towards the gems. “You have lots of gems here. How come you need more gems?”
“Um,” Rover says, looking to Fido. “Well, we find gems in some area, others no gem. Lots of gems here!” He motions to the purple poles. “But we let gem sit, they grow mean.”
“Mean?” Twilight asks, a hoof coming up to rub her forehead. “What do you mean by that? How do gems get mean?”
“Spit fire. Like dragon! Or cut deep.” Rover shrugs. “But, J’mare like gem that burn. Or cut. She want lots! Fido have…” Rover struggles with the word for a few seconds, like it is a foreign concept, “...idea about gems. So, take gem that grow here, before get burn, and move to cut spot. J’mare very happy with those gem!”
“Fascinating!” Twilight says, happily sitting down on the dirt. “Can you tell me more?”
Spike salivates as he pries a small ruby out of the ground. He pops it in his mouth, grinning as a bit of flame bursts forth. “Spicy!” he claims, immediately searching for another. He runs towards the purple poles, eagerly digging and finding another red gem. This one disappears just as quickly. Spike takes another step forwards, but shrieks in surprise as the dirt in front of him explodes upwards.
“Live one!” Rover shouts, running to grab one of the blue clubs from the wall. Spike backs away as a small red golem unearths itself, a silent shriek as it spits a small burst of fire his way. It blasts directly into Spike, the dragon shrugging off the attack, as Rover brings the club down hard. The small golem shatters; most of the pieces sink into the dirt, turning into dust, but one dull red crystal remains.
Fido picks up the crystal, inspecting it. He nods to Rover, walking over to an empty crate and dropping it in. Spike’s “Aww,” goes ignored as he too grabs a club from the wall.
“Yes, need rotating.” Rover rolls his eyes at Twilight’s inquisitive expression, the purple mare walking right up next to him and practically begging with her eyes. “We take gems. Different spots different…” Rover struggles with the words for a few seconds.
“Ingredients? Stages? Properties?” Twilight offers.
“Magic?” Rover smiles, a shrug of his thin shoulders. “Take different magic. Get bigger. Stop after three. Can paw three. More bad paw, hurt. Too hard.”
Twilight’s horn flares, her jaw gaping open. “You are intentionally moving the gems around so they absorb the different qualities inherently available! That’s incredible!”
“Yes?” Rover briefly smiles as he, Fido, and Spot dig up the rest of the red crystals by the purple poles, only a few of them animating and attacking.