One Year Later
Third Person
Two large bipedal dogs stood in a long rock tunnel. They leaned slightly on the walls as their eyes drooped. All night they had been standing there, and the sun was comeing up soon. Then they could finally get some rest back in the den. Their heavy metal spears stood tall and were covered in lightly glowing gems. They provided just enough light for the dogs to see with. Thick metal armor covered large arms and legs built for digging. Fangs hung from their mouths and large helmets protected their heads. Two pairs of ears pricked up as they detected a small noise. Then they relaxed after hearing nothing for a few seconds.
A thick mist slowly spread through the tunnel. The dogs barely noticed, as their fur coats protected them from the cold air. It crawled down from the opening they were guarding and slunk down into the dens of the dogs, piercing every room and crevice in the tunnel system. Then the gems in their staffs stopped glowing. They jumped up and started shuffling around in the dark, trying to see what happened to their spears. Then, with two loud CRACKS, everything was silent.
All throughout the tunnels guards were falling silently, clearing a path to several side caverns. Except for one trail of fog that went directly into the main cavern. The main cavern of the den was massive. Large torches covered the walls and lit the giant pillars reaching to the stone ceiling one hundred feet above. Gems were imbedded in the pillars and they lit the roof with a soft glow. Magnificent carvings of dogs in battle covered the ceilings, along with row after row of writing in a ring around the edges. A large throne sat in the very center of the room. It was made of iron with ruby arms. Diamond and topaz decorated the back of the chair. A large dog was leaned over in the chair asleep. Around the room the guards were falling over, and the dog only awoke when the torches were blown out suddenly. A pair of blue eyes glowed in the entrance to the cavern and stared at him.
The king looked around at all the fallen guards before facing the eyes once more. “Who goes there?” A deep rumbling voice came from his mouth. He refused to show fear. Glowing writing appeared in the air before him.
‘You have committed grave offenses to Equestria. How do you plead?’
“What offenses do you speak of creature? Only weaklings hide as you do.”
‘The kidnapping and enslavement of one hundred and fifty seven ponies. How do you plead?
“We needed more diggers and ponies have spells to find gems. An easy way too skin two cats with one blade. Now show yourself coward.”
The glowing letters faded and the eyes dissapeared, leaving the room in darkness. Then a glow slowly spread across something near the entrance. Pink clouds surrounded by blackness and stars. Asteroids glided across the small patch of night sky. The king’s eyes grew wide and he pressed himself against the back of his throne. “What is this?” His eyes narrowed.
‘You have been judged. Now cease to be.’ A small spear of ice was the last thing the dog saw.
No one noticed the young pair of eyes watching from behind a pillar.
Night Wing
‘How did the extraction go?’ I asked the Lunar pegasi beside me as we stepped over a dead dog lying on the floor.
“Good Captain. We managed to locate and retrieve all one hundred and fifty seven ponies, with minimal casualties on both sides.”
‘Did any of the captives die?’ We stepped around another body as we led the poor ponies behind us to the surface.
“No sir, some of them are wounded but nothing life threatening.” A pony behind us vomited as we walked past a particularly messy body. The thestral looked back and winced. “Was it really a good idea to lead them out past the dead bodies? Couldn’t we have cleared the tunnels first?”
‘There is no time to clear the tunnels. The dogs will notice something is wrong and have reinforcements here soon.’ Fresh air hit my face as we crossed the threshold of the tunnels and stepped out onto grass. I glanced at the large mountain behind us before facing forwards and opening a large portal to the castle grounds. I stood to one side and the thestral with me stood on the other side. Ponies streamed from the tunnel, crying and thanking us as they passed. I payed them no mind and watched the tunnel closely. More guards were inside and they were helping the ponies out in a calm manner. We didn’t want any to get crushed in a mad dash for the exit.
As the last few ponies were leaving the tunnel my eyes narrowed at a distant barking. I saw dim lights far into the tunnel. ‘Hurry up! Dogs incoming!’ The last twenty or thirty ponies started rushing from the caves, trying to get to the portal as fast as possible. I picked up the ones that fell over and helped them to their feet with my magic. The guards formed a line in the tunnel, with their spears pointed in the direction of the approaching torches. As the first dog came into sight the unicorns started firing heat spells into the tunnel. Any dogs hit caught fire immediately, causing the dogs to slow down as they tried to get around the burning bodies. The tunnel was quite large so it didn’t totally impede their progress. ‘Come on! Get in the portal!’ “CAAAAW!!” I cried out as the last of the civilians made it through. The guards started rushing to the portal as the canines closed in. The furthest guard cried out as a dog lept at him with his spear outstretched. Until a portal opened under his feet and he flew out into the portal to the castle courtyard. I sealed the tunnel with a thick wall of ice as the last guards made it out. Then I followed the last guard into the portal as it closed.
I sighed as I sat in my room. It didn’t have much in it, just an armor stand with my armor on it and a few bookshelves. The shelves didn’t even have many books on them. Mainly knickknacks I had collected from different places. An ingot of blue steel, a couple of my feathers, a large purple egg, and more recently an solid iron spear inlaid with gems. I got that from our first encounter with the dogs. They had came from the northern mountains about six months ago, just a few packs of them. They quickly realized that Equestria had far more gems than their mountains. They started pouring from the mountains in search of gems, and they did whatever it took to find them. The packs would claim huge pieces of land for themselves, far too much for them to dig. So they would enslave ponies and the few griffins they found.
I got off my bed and approached my feather mirror. A quick touch and an image of Light Lance’s office appeared in it. Light looked up as the early morning sun shine through his windows. “Ah, Night. How did the retrieval go last night?”
‘It went well. How goes the border efforts?’
“Not well. More and more packs cross the border every day. We try to repel them but they find ways to sneak by. Usually by digging under us.” Light rubbed at his temples. “We are still working out ways to stop them. And the High King refuses to speak with us.” Light looked down to write something, a scowl on his face. “Then I have all this paperwork to do. We've been arresting more and more ponies for starting riots in towns near the border. And we have had trouble with the Thestrals.”
‘What do you mean trouble with the Thestrals?’ This was new to me.
“The ponies don’t want them in the border towns. They get chased out every time we send them. One got hospitalized by an angry mob and the doctors barely stabilized him.”
‘Why are they being chased out?’ I had an idea already. But I wanted to be sure.
“Ponies are afraid Night. Strange creatures from the mountains are taking their family and they can’t do anything about it. So they take out their anger on the next best thing.” He sighed and got up from his chair. The sun shone off his white fur as he stood by the window and looked over the city. “I asked Celestia to help us with the dogs. We can’t punch through the defenses by ourselves.”
‘You know she can’t help you with that Light. She doesn’t have the ability to hurt so many living things.’ I narrowed my eyes. ‘She wants this to be over as much as we do, but she can’t battle like that. It would kill her to end so many lives.’
“You’re right. That’s why she talked to Luna about it.” Light winced as he spoke.
‘She did what?’ Light flinched as I glared at him. ‘Why would she ask Luna of all ponies.’
“Because this needs to end Captain Night.” He returned my glare. “Ponies are suffering and it is our job to do what we can to protect them. Whether we like it or not.” Luna had gotten violent in the past year. It was to be expected after Midnight died but we had been working with her, trying to rid her of the violent tendencies. She was always the first to jump to violent solutions, even for simple matters like someone stealing apples from the market. Unless it was a child. She was extremely gentle to children. She even let a child go without consequences after they knocked a wagon full of produce onto her in the town square. When a stallion bumped into her right after that incident, she slapped him onto the ground. She had made tremendous progress since then, no longer reacting violently to the smallest issues.
‘I don’t want to lose the progress we have made with Luna. She has come so far. To send her into battle would......’ my gaze wilted.
“I know Night. It hurts me to, but I don’t see any other option. You can’t find him because we don’t know what he looks like. We don’t even know his name! We just know he exist somewhere in the mountains. Once Luna gets us into the mountains we can find him, but until then this is the best plan we have.” A flash of light signaled a scroll appearing before Light. It had a dark blue ribbon tied around it to signify it was from Luna. After a moment Light glanced up to look at me through the mirror. “Luna will be joining me and my company in three days time.” I was silent as I contemplated what this meant.
‘Very well. I wish you good fortune with the assault. I will be busy extracting ponies from the dens nearby.’ I waved my wing to shut off the connection between the mirrors.
“And I to you.” I heard Light respond just before the mirror returned to showing space.
Three Days Later
Light Lance
The familiar sound of marching surrounded me as hundreds of metal clad hooves pounded the earth. Princess Luna and I lead the group to the edge of our territory. Already we were seeing scattered holes marking where Diamond Dogs had forced themselves into our land. The northern mountains towered over us, a great divider between us and the cold northern lands. As we approached the base of the mountains, a pack of dogs erupted from the ground ahead of us.
“Halt! State your business for entering the land of the High King!” The lead dog shouted out. I snorted in anger at that. They come into our land against our will, yet they block our entrance into theirs.
“We wish to speak with your High King.” Princess Luna spoke in an even voice. “May we enter to open negotiations between our kingdoms?”
“By word of the High King himself, none shall enter the kingdom of the Dogs!” The dogs lifted their spears and I prepared to put up a shield around me and the Princess.
Until dark blue bolts shot them all. I looked over to see a glow fading from Princess Luna’s horn. “Let us proceed to the negotiations Captain Light.” There was no emotion on her face as she strode past the bodies. I gulped a little as we all followed her to the mountains.
We had no Pegasi with us as they would be useless underground, where we were going. Unfortunately this also meant we had no eyes in the sky. Again, this was mostly useless since the dogs navigated under the earth. It would have made the soldiers feel better though. Up and up we walked, fighting against gravity as the ground slowly sloped upwards. Ahead of us was a giant hole in the rock. “We are approaching one of the main entrances your highness. Should we camp before heading in?” I glanced up at the fading light of the sky.
“Nay, we shall enter now. The time of day will not matter below the surface. It is only a matter of time before the sentries will be missed and the dogs start hunting us.” Luna looked back over the ponies behind us. “We move in now.” Then she turned around and walked into the dark depths without another word.
We had been walking for hours. The dogs knew we were here, they had to. We had seen nothing living as we descended deeper and deeper. Even the earth ponies were getting nervous in the low light. The unicorns were saving their energy for any fighting, so they provided minimal lighting. We passed tunnel after tunnel, following the main path. Soon lights could be seen ahead of us.
“Steady.” I called out. The tunnel made my voice echo slightly, and everyone heard it despite me not yelling. The lights grew brighter until we could make out a large cavern ahead of us. My eyes narrowed against the light as I exited the tunnel and entered the well lit cave. It was a massive pocket in the stone, easily big enough to fit the Princesses’ castle inside of.
Alcoves lines the walls, some had braziers and others had armored Dogs. At the very end was an onyx throne covered in gems and gold inlays. In fact, everything was covered in gems. Every kind of gems, even some I had never seen before. Large red gems that seemed to contain fire and deep blue that swirled like water inside. The ceiling had spirals of gems leading from the walls to one huge diamond embedded in the roof.
Seated in the throne was a large dog. Huge might be a better word. He was wearing thick iron armor that was beautifully engraved and inlaid with large gemstones. A large staff with a glowing ruby rested in his right paw as he observed us with a lazy stare. He was leaning his head on his left paw, a bored expression on his face. “So, you have come to open negotiations with me? Strange, for someone so eager to kill my sentries.”
“Yet you have invaded our country and enslaved our citizens.” Luna countered.
“I never said I wanted to nogotiate. I saw the massive amount of gems your country has, so I sent dogs to get them. It’s not that hard to understand really.” He lazily spun his staff around. I snarled as he insulted the Princess, yet she was calm as ever.
“You will withdrawl your dogs, and release your pony slaves to us.” Luna’s eyes hardened. “Or suffer the consequences.”
“What consequences would those be?” He snapped his claws and two guards brought in a ragged mare. Her hooves were cracked and her eyes were blank. “You ponies make such good slaves. This one lasted almost a month in the mines before she collapsed. Unfortunately, she has outlived her usefulness.” Faster than we could react he lowered his staff at the mare and a torrent of flame poured from it. Her screams echoed around the cavern as she was quickly incinerated. Some of the soldiers rushed forwards to help but were held back by Princess Luna. It was too late to do anything.
“You would do well to choose your next action very carefully.” Luna states coldly as the king smirked at her.
“I believe my next action would be to capture you all for the mines. After all, I would be a fool to waste so many strong bodies.” Dogs descended from the walls and surrounded us in seconds.
“Princess...” I whispered over to her. I looked over and felt a chill at the look in her eyes.
“I’m glad you chose wrong. I will enjoy this greatly.” She yanked the king from his throne and pulled him into her waiting hoof, ending his life with a crunch. Then we dissapeared with a flash.
I shook my head as the light faded from my eyes and I saw we were outside once more. Everyone looked around in confusion until Princess Luna rose into the air. All eyes were on her as her horn glowed brightly, lighting up the surrounding area. Then we looked to the sky as the moon rose to block the sun. Suddenly the earth trembled as a ripple in the earth made it’s way to the mountain. It made contact were the throne room was located and instantly the ground began to split and shatter. Thunder rolled across the land as the mountain crumbled and sank into the earth as a chasm opened beneath it. I sat down with an open mouth as the ground then sealed up, leaving no trace of there ever being a mountain there. The mountain chain had a gap in it now, and it looked as though it always did.
“I think this will be a wonderful trophy.” Luna held up the former king’s chest piece. “Let’s head home and report the success Captain Light. I do not believe the dogs will bother us any longer.”